Prophecies of Daniel

Bible prophecy

Bible prophecy

Home » Bible prophecy

“Did he really say that?”

· by · In: The Future and Endtime, Basic Christianity Tagged: , ,

When you start talking about the possibility of a spiritual world, life after death, and prophecies fulfilled, some people just have a sudden shut down of their mind or emotions. It’s a real wrench because it just goes counter to almost everything they’ve generally held to be true.

I know this because I went through that exact experience and it was not easy. It was really difficult. But also it was a real liberation. I wanted the truth, no matter what, even if it meant there actually was a real God, just like I’d always been told, ha!

And if you’re here, reading part 3 of this series, then maybe you’re willing to “give this an ear”, as they say in English. Maybe there have been a few true prophets, right? Maybe there is some kind of world other than the one we can see and feel and move around in daily. Maybe Jesus of Nazareth was more than just some carpenter from Israel that the Romans killed 2000 years ago.

Did Jesus say he would return to this world?

So you might wonder, “Did he really say that? Did Jesus say he would return to this world?”

Yes, he did. The night before he was arrested, he was in Jerusalem with his most trusted followers, privately celebrating with them the Jewish Passover. Here’s one of the things Jesus is recorded as telling his closest friends that night. “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also.” 1

Jesus was telling them that he was about to leave them and go “somewhere else.” But he told them he would return so that they could be where he was. And it wasn’t like all of them totally understood what he was telling them. Far from it. In fact, he’d already told them repeatedly some months earlier that

The Son of Man [this is how Jesus referred to himself] will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.2

Did his followers understand that when he told them? No. The next thing the Bible says is “But they did not understand that saying and were afraid to ask Him.” 3

Even the closest followers of Jesus during his life on earth often just didn’t totally get what he was saying. It was not until after his death and resurrection, when he appeared to them again, repeatedly, that they began to get the full picture of what he truly was and what he taught.

But after he began to appear to them, after he rose from the dead… (Yes, I know, I’m asking you to believe another preposterous thing: Jesus rising from the dead!) Well, that’s what he told his followers would happen, that he’d be crucified and rise again, even though they didn’t understand it.

So after he rose from the dead, the followers were asking him if he was at that time going to establish his kingdom on earth4. It’s clear they were aware that something was still left to happen.

Jesus was with them for 40 days after his resurrection. Then the Bible says, He was taken up. And a cloud received Him out of their sight. 5

His followers were there and saw this happen. It goes on to say, And while they were looking intently into the heaven after Jesus had gone up, two men in white clothing [angels!] stood beside them, who said, “Why do you stand gazing up into the heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up into Heaven, will come in the way you have seen Him going into Heaven.” 6

So there it is again. He is going to come again. He was “taken up into Heaven”. But he is destined to return again to this world.

Maybe that’s a lot to swallow. Or at least a lot to think about. I know when I first read all this, or was taught it by someone who knew the Bible, it radically changed my whole outlook of life, reality and the world I lived in. Either this is all just completely crazy or it’s true. And I just didn’t feel inside of me that it was crazy. There was too much that I’d already experienced or seen that pointed towards these things being the actual experiences of people who saw all this and recorded it for everyone then and from then on.

And I guess it wasn’t just one time only when my viewpoints and earlier views of life were fundamentally challenged. There were a number of times when I was just left in shock and awe at what I read in the Bible. It took some time to digest it all, to ponder the significance of it for myself personally and for what it also meant to every person living in this world.

In the next post in this series, we’re going to look further at this whole concept of Jesus’ return to this world. What would it mean to all of us? What will the conditions be like when it happens? How would it change things? When will it happen? Our next class is called “Who is Armageddon anyway?”

Talk to you soon, Mark

1  Gospel of John, chapter 14, verses 2 and 3
2 Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, verse 31
3 Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, verse 32
4  See Acts chapter 1, verse 6
5 Acts chapter 1, verse 9
6 Acts chapter 1, verses 10 and 11

“When you die, you die like a dog, right?”

· by · In: Current events, Basic Christianity, Angels, Miracles and the spirit world Tagged: , , , ,

Someone told me that when I was young and it really stuck with me. “When you die, you die like a dog.” It’s a real simple way of expressing one of the most prevalent ideologies on earth: atheism and unbelief. If you look at things that way (and I did for years), then you just have to laugh and smirk at anyone who says something about Jesus returning to this world. It’s just ludicrous.

Because, when you look at things that way, there’s just no life after you die. You usually think of yourself as not much more than a complex nexus of neurons, a composite of carbon, calcium and water, the highest form of life on this obscure little planet. And how many millions of people look at our existence this way? Many.

What can you say to them? They hold a fierce, entrenched view of the life we have. So what do I say when I meet someone who has those views and challenges my faith in God? I usually just say something simple like, “Well, there is a spiritual world.”

There is a spiritual world

I’ve found that many, if not most people will sooner or later admit that “perhaps” there’s “something” more than what we can see and feel and measure with instruments. So many people have had personal experiences, or their relatives have, where someone from the past, a relative who’s passed on, has appeared to them in a dream or in their minds to speak to them, sometimes even to warn them of a danger or to speak words of comfort. This is such an often-experienced event that many people will candidly admit, if they are honest, that it’s happened to them or someone they know.

And of course, that’s the truth. There really is a spiritual world. And if there is, that means that we’re not just a collection of atoms. We’re more than that. As the famous atheist-turned-Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis said, “You don’t have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body.”

I can honestly say that the biggest turnaround in my life occurred when I very reluctantly had to admit that there is a world beyond my mind and politics and shopping and all the little things I was caught up in.

Naturally we find that this is what the famous characters from ancient times were saying all along. Ancient prophecy had some very major things to say about this, especially when it came to that unique king that would come one day to the world.

Like we saw in that verse from Micah that we’ve read, “But you, Bethlehem, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth He which is to rule my people Israel, whose going forth is from old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5: 2)

It not only predicted that the king to come would be from Bethlehem, but it also said this ruler to come was “…from old, from everlasting.”  In other words, he was pre-existent, even before he was born in this world.

But what about life after death? King David, the greatest of ancient Israel’s kings, prophesied of the unique king that was to come. In one of his writings, speaking to God, he said, “…you will not leave my soul in hell, neither will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.” (Psalm 16:10)

David foresaw that the king that God would send to the world would not “see corruption.” In other words, the king to come would not suffer the fate of every other human being, in finally being laid to rest in a grave and their flesh decaying.

This was one of the most unique things about the life of Jesus. After his crucifixion, he was laid in a grave outside Jerusalem. But, according to the Bible, on the third day after his death, he rose from the dead, just as he’d told his disciples he would.

Now you may not believe that. I certainly didn’t when I first heard it. But I didn’t know it had been prophesied centuries before that there would be a king to come who would not “see corruption.” I didn’t know there were prophecies that he would be “born in Bethlehem”, that he would be “born of a virgin”, and so many more.

Usually, at some point, it comes down to a matter of the truth, and how much you want it. Many people like facts, I always have. But when you’re faced with truth that challenges much of what you’ve believed till then, there comes what is called “the moment of truth.” It’s sort of funny it’s called that.

But if there’s a phenomenon of prophecy which has been foretelling the future for thousands of years, if there’s a spiritual world greater and more real than the physical one we live in, if there’s a life of the soul that goes beyond the physical life of our bodies, then this could lead us to a very different view of our existence.

It would mean that we don’t just die like a dog. We go on. Our soul will go on, after our body ceases to work. And in this reality, realm and existence, that unique king came and died and rose from the dead. If there’s a spiritual world, if there’s prophecy that foretells the future, then this is all utterly possible.

And that king that was to come, Jesus of Nazareth, said that he would come to this world again.

Talk to you soon, Mark

 

Why study the book of Daniel?

· by · In: The Future and Endtime, Daniel videos and texts Tagged: , , , , ,

I assume, if you’re reading this, that you probably already have a passing interest in the subject of Bible prophecy and the future. In these times, more and more people are beginning to have at least some curiosity about this subject and are trying to find out more about it.

Daniel pours out his heart to God for wisdom to understand Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, from Daniel chapter 2
Daniel pours out his heart to God
for wisdom to understand Nebuchadnezzar’s dream,
from Daniel chapter 2

But once you start searching around, you can really find some different, even opposing ideas about it all. So much of it can even engender fear or confusion. Often folks just give up trying to grasp any constants or absolutes that can be found about the subject of Bible prophecy.

Some have even said, “Why study the book of Daniel? Hasn’t it all already been fulfilled? Isn’t it only written for Jewish people?” That’s what some say.

Currently I’m meeting with a group of people who are studying the subject of prophecy in the Bible. The main thing we’ve been reading is from the book of Ezekiel. It’s  being taught in this group that Ezekiel chapter 38 is in the  process of being fulfilled right now in current events playing out daily in the Middle East, as a precursor to the final events leading up to the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. Then I have other friends talk to me about verses in Isaiah which they say predict an atomic attack on the city of Damascus in Syria. And they look for that to happen, soon. So why am I doing a series on the book of Daniel? Shouldn’t we be studying Ezekiel or Isaiah?

The authority of Jesus

Here’s why. If you are looking for authority in the Bible, there’s no greater than Jesus Himself. Did He talk about the future, the time before His return and His coming Kingdom?  Absolutely. The two main chapters where He talked about this were Matthew 24 and Mark 13. He’s quoted as saying this in both chapters but I’ll quote from Matthew 24:15. “When you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand).”

When asked about the future, Jesus didn’t refer to Ezekiel, or Isaiah, or any other book in the Bible. But He did refer specifically to the book of Daniel and even to a specific passage of Scripture in that book. Then He went on to say, “Whosoever reads it, let him understand.” Jesus both emphases that book and made it unusually clear, highlighting the importance of understanding that particular passage.

Admittedly, that verse, Matthew 24:15, is not very easy to understand at first glance. That’s one of the reasons why in my series on Daniel, I start with the first prophetic chapter in Daniel and then build on it. The series begins with Daniel chapter 2, then goes on to chapter 7 and 8, before we are really ready to look at this emphasized statement that Jesus made about certain passages in what turns out to be Daniel 9 and 11.

Then if we look at what is considered the most specifically prophetic book in the New Testament, Revelations, it is full of material that refers back to characters and events  first introduced in Daniel’s visions and prophecies some 600 or more years earlier than the date of Revelations.

If we are to look for instruction from the Bible as to what the future holds, there’s no clearer or more unambiguous book in the Old Testament than Daniel. And no, definitely, it has not all been fulfilled. Numerous things that are first clearly spoken of in Daniel, and further clarified and defined in Revelation, just haven’t happened yet.

With so much speculation nowadays having to do with fulfilled prophecy and possible events soon to come, I’m convinced that a solid understanding of Daniel’s prophecies offers the best hope of establishing a foundation of understanding future certainties. And it seems Jesus Himself pointed us to this beginning point when He referred to specifics in Daniel yet to be fulfilled and said, “Whoever reads, let him understand.”

[button link=”https://www.propheciesofdaniel.com/videos/prophecy/”]Watch Introducing Prophecy Video[/button]