Jëan Ross: Good morning, friends. I'd like to welcome all of you once again to "Sabbath School Study Hour," coming to you from the Amazing Facts offices in Sacramento, California. We'd like to welcome all of those joining in, in our online interactive lesson study this morning. I know we have folks joining us from our local area, our local church members from Granite Bay, but also those who are across the country and even in other countries around the world that are tuning in to study the lesson today.
We have a very exciting study. It's dealing with the subject of the Bible and, in particular, we're on lesson number 11 and it's "The Bible and Prophecy." So Pastor Doug and I were just talking before the program about some of the things we want to highlight in the lesson. There's a lot of information but it's very important and good information.
We do want to tell you about our free offer today. It's one of the Amazing Facts study guides and it's dealing with time prophecy. It's entitled, "Right on Time!" And we'd be happy to send this to anyone who calls and asks. The number is 866-788-3966 and you can just ask for offer number 131 and we'll get that in the mail and send it to you. You can also order the digital copy of the lesson by texting the code "SH057" to the number 40544, and you'll be able to get a digital copy of the lesson entitled "Right on Time!" And I think you'll really enjoy it. It's a lot of important, fascinating information. Well, Pastor Doug, it's just a joy to be able to study this very important lesson and, of course, before we get into it, let's start with a word of prayer.
Doug Batchelor: Amen.
Jëan: Dear Father in heaven, we thank You once again that we're able to open up Your Word and study some of the passages in the book of Daniel, also some of the prophecies in Revelation. And Father, it's important for us to understand these truths. They're relevant for our time, so we do ask for Your leading and Your guiding. Be with those who are joining us as well, for we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, our lesson, "The Bible and Prophecy," and Pastor Doug, our memory verse is a very well-known Bible verse to a lot of Adventists.
Doug: Yes, any Seventh-day Adventist worth their salt knows this one and it's from Daniel chapter 8, verse 14: "And he said unto me, Unto 2300 days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." And we're--actually, later in the lesson, there's a whole section that goes into that verse so we'll talk a little more about that then. So--go ahead.
Jëan: Yes, I was just going to add to that. Our memory text, there's a couple of important themes there. We've got a time prophecy, 2300 days. We've got a judgment theme, talking about the cleansing of the sanctuary. It's really a verse relating to Bible prophecy but also end-time, the time that we're living in right now. So it is significant for us as people living near the Second Coming.
Doug: And one of the longest prophecies in the Bible as well. Well, under the first section, we're going to take a minute and talk about this. We have something that's called historicism and prophecy, and it's really important at this stage in the lesson to take a moment and explain that when you read the Bible, for more--most Christians there are three real perspectives. There's three modes or sciences of interpretation that are usually used by various denominations. One is called historicism. There's the historicist view of prophecy. One is preterism and one is futurism.
Let's take a minute and just talk about what that is. The historicist and this is, you know, what this section is dedicated to, this is a group of people who take the prophecies and we believe they go from the time of the prophet's utterance and it's a continuous line of prophecies up 'til the final fulfillment, often being the Second Coming of the Lord or the earth made new and heaven.
Then you get preterism and I'll come back and we'll say more about historicism in a minute. Preterism, you can tell from the word, "pre," it often takes the prophecies and it believes the prophecies of Daniel, they're all fulfilled and, you know, the evil king was Antiochus Epiphanes and when you get to the prophecies of Revelation, they think the Antichrist power was Nero, and that all of the prophecies of Revelation met their fulfillment by 100 AD, and so the preterists say it's all in the past. Now, they accept that, you know, the Resurrection and the Second Coming and these things have not happened yet.
And then you've got futurism. Now, I should mention, futurism is a fairly new interpretation prophecy. Actually, both preterism and futurism are less than 500 years old. They're fairly new views of how to interpret prophecy. Futurism was really born from out of the Reformation. As the different reformers, and I should mention that people like Luther, Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox, Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Spurgeon, and many more, they believed in the historicist view of interpretation.
But because Luther and others, in using the historicist view, they looked at the papacy as the little-horn power, millions were flocking out of Romanism into the Reformation movement. The Jesuits basically engaged a couple of priests to write what they called a counter interpretation. And their names were Manuel Lacunza. He lived actually 1731 to 1801. Then before him was Francisco Ribera. He's really the main source, a Catholic Jesuit, and he wrote from 1537 he lived 'til 1591. And basically, they took most of Revelation from Revelation chapter 4 where it says: "I heard a trumpet and a voice said, 'Come up hither.'" They say that trumpet is a secret Rapture and that's--the people--and everything from Revelation 4 on, they say, is in the future. Well, that eliminates a lot of Revelation.
And so, now here's the interesting part of the story. This Jesuit interpretation of prophecy was adopted by Darby and then Scofield included Darby's interpretation in the Scofield Bible. That really made it popular. He included it in his notes of revelation. He had adopted it. Then people like Hal Lindsey, 40 years ago, they read that and they put it in their bestselling books called "The Late Great Planet Earth" and "Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth." That was read by evangelicals everywhere and all of a sudden you see that even Billy Graham's preaching went from historicism to futurism. And it just shifted so that now, by far, the left-behind books, the left-behind movies, evangelicals who haven't understood Revelation, they've pretty much embraced the futuristic view of prophecy.
Jëan: And we can also see that, Pastor Doug, by a de-emphasis of the Protestant position on, well, the little-horn power of Daniel chapter 7, talking about the beast of Revelation chapter 13. You know, the early Reformers all identified this as the Roman power, the papal power, but of course, today, even in the evangelical world, in the Protestant world, many people have forgotten the roots, the foundation, of why they are Protestant.
But if you look at what the Bible says, you know, and remember we let the Bible interpret itself. If you look at the pattern that's established in Scripture, there's no room for a preterist view or a futuristic view. The Bible itself teaches a historicist view of Bible prophecy, and probably one of the clearest foundations of this, at least, one of the main foundations to understanding this, is Daniel chapter 2. It's a passage that we know: Nebuchadnezzar the king has a dream and in his dream he sees this giant image made of these various metals. Daniel then explains the meaning of this dream to the king and he uses the historicist method. In other words, he says, "You are the head of gold and after you will come another kingdom, represented by the chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass is the third kingdom. The legs of iron is the fourth kingdom.
And then it talks about the kingdom being divided up. The feet of iron and clay, and then of course, the stone that comes and strikes the image. That is the establishment of Christ's kingdom, that is the Second Coming. Well, Daniel is very clear, not only in Daniel chapter 2 but it's repeating Daniel chapter 7 and then again in Daniel chapter 8. So we have three times that Daniel himself—
Doug: And even Daniel 10 through 12 is still using the historicist method.
Jëan: So Daniel himself, he's saying, "This is the way you need to interpret these symbols and prophecies." There is no thousand-year gap between, for example, the belly and thighs of brass and the legs of iron. Matter of fact, Rome immediately follows Greece and Greece, of course, follows Medo-Persia, so the gap theory or the gap teaching which you need to apply with a futuristic interpretation of Bible prophecy is not supported in the Scripture itself, it's just not there.
Doug: Yes, Daniel gives an unbroken panorama of history from his time 'til the kingdom of Christ is set up in the earth. And you see that in Revelation 2. They both use a series of prophecies where they back up and they retell. But each prophecy gives--it's an unbroken sequence and, you know, this last week that many futurists take--they say, "Well, there's this last seven years of Tribulation." They break that off of Daniel chapter 9, the 490-year prophecy, and they've got it floating away from the rest of the prophecy and they really can't give any reason for that, where everything else in the book tells us it's this sequence, it's uninterrupted.
Jëan: Yes, absolutely, and it's important for us to remember that because there's a lot of confusion and all kinds of strange interpretations of Scripture when you take the symbols in Revelation and Daniel and you apply it to some futuristic power. It could really represent anything. And that's one of the dangers of the futuristic interpretation.
It's also important for us to know, Pastor Doug, that when we study Bible prophecy we want to use the historicist method because--and that's what we find even Daniel using, but it's also important that we recognize that there are certain time elements or keys to unlock time prophecy. And that's what's brought to light in the next section of our lesson but just before we do that we also need to remember that Bible prophecy isn't really there for us to try and guess what's going to happen in the future but, rather, Jesus said, "When these things come to pass your faith will be," I'm paraphrasing, "your faith will be encouraged," in the Scriptures.
Doug: Yes, two times there in John 13, verse 19, and John 14:29, Jesus said, "I told you before that when it comes to pass then you'll know." So how do we know the historicist's view is the right view, is we look back and we see it works. It's like my teacher used to say, "Use the multiplication table," and I thought, "Why?" She said, "It works. It's been proven." And so the historicist view, you can look back and say, "This is--it all happened." Most Adventist evangelists, somewhere in their first few presentations, they do Daniel 2 and the reason is it is so effective in proving the validity of the Bible because you can look in the history book, you look at the Bible, you say, "The Bible was right."
Jëan: All right, well, we've got some questions coming in. Again, if you have a Bible question, maybe relating to prophecy or a passage of Scripture, be sure to type it there on Facebook and we'll try to answer as many as we can. So James is asking, Pastor Doug, "What is the falling away that the Bible is talking about?" So I'm assuming what Paul says: "The day of the Lord won't come unless there be a falling away." What is that referring to?
Doug: Yes, well, Paul also said, "After my departure," in Acts, he says, "grievous wolves will enter in, not sparing the flock to draw away disciples after themselves." The falling away he's talking about is not a falling away in the world. The world fell away back in Adam's day. He's saying that there would be a falling away in the church and that's what you read about in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation with the--it's that little horn power or that Antichrist power that began in a special way in 538 or even began during the conversion of Constantine, where there was a great compromise that came into the church where they started to co-mingle paganism with Christianity and the religion became corrupted from the inside.
Jëan: Of course, that's an important theme that you find in Daniel chapter 7, is this falling away from the truth of God's Word by this religious, political power that rules for 1260 days and we'll probably talk about that a little later. Another question that's come in, Pastor Doug, is "Who are the Israelites today, according to the Bible?" Who are the Israelites today?
Doug: Yes, and this is a very--it's a sensitive subject because if you say that it's not all literal Israel, people accuse you of what they call "replacement theology," meaning there's no role for Israel, they've all been replaced now by the church. We believe that the Bible teaches if you are Christ's, you are Abraham's seed. Now, that means that if a Jew does not accept Jesus, they are not saved by virtue of having Hebrew genetics. Christ is, the Bible tells us, God is not a regarder of people. He's--looks on the heart. He is not a Jew which is worn outwardly. He is a Jew which is worn inwardly.
Now, Jew or Gentile, and even Paul said, you know, "Salvation comes to the Jew first and the Gentile on those that believe." And so, yes, we believe there's a special place for Israel, even in prophecy today, as they believe. But the Gentiles are grafted in, Paul tells us. We are grafted in to the stock of Israel and it's not now circumcision in the flesh, it's circumcision in the heart. So if you are Christ's, you are able to partake of all the promises made to Abraham. There is a spiritual component of the Gentiles being grafted in as well.
Jëan: And that's probably an important point to remember. When you're studying the book of Revelation because, Pastor Doug, correct me if I'm wrong but I believe in Revelation there's only two groups of people: you're either saved and you're an Israelite or you're lost and you're a Gentile. Now, of course, Revelation is a symbolic book and we're not saying that, you know, obviously, literally, you have to be a descendant of Abraham to be saved but spiritually speaking, Israel are those who receive Christ, those who have the seal of God. So it's a symbol that we find in the Bible.
Doug: You know, but that--I think people are surprised to remember that was even true in the Old Testament. You know, God had people that--He had people that loved Him that maybe were not part of Israel. Jesus emphasizes that but Ruth, Rahab, Tamar, they all were grafted into the stock of Israel. Uriah the Hittite, you know, there's a lot of people that they came in and they said, "We are going to accept the God." In the New Testament we have a new covenant. It's a new testament.
Let's read the new testament: "I will make a new covenant after those days with the house of Israel and the house of Judah." God makes no saving covenant with Gentiles. Every Christian is grafted into--they become spiritual Jews under the new covenant. They receive the promises by--because the promise is only made with the house of Israel. So we're really grafted in and we read a Jewish book. And--but it's not physical circumcision. It's in the heart. It's not sacrificing lambs. Jesus is our lamb, so there's some differences now.
Jëan: All right, one more question, then we'll get back to the lesson here. Angela is asking, "Can we actually quicken the Lord's Coming?"
Doug: You know, Peter tells us, "Looking for and hastening unto the Coming of--" And that's 2 Peter chapter 3, "The Coming of the Day of God." If Jesus said, "The gospel," Matthew 24:14, "the gospel of this kingdom will be preached in all the world, then the end will come," clearly He wants everyone to have an opportunity to hear before the end comes and, based on what Peter says, that as we're filled with the Holy Spirit and we preach the gospel, we cooperate with the Lord in giving everybody a chance to hear and also even in our own lives.
As we live to allow Christ to reproduce His image in us, the Lord is going to come for a church that has reproduced His image before the world, His character. And so, in that respect, we can participate and it appears that the day's going to come sooner. God knows when it's going to be, so it's not like we're--God does not have a big shifting line in eschatology.
Jëan: Okay, well, that leads us to our next subject in the lesson and it's called, "The Year-Day Principle" that we find. Important principle because not only do we find this referred to in Bible prophecy but even some Old Testament stories use the day for the year principle and then we're even finding Jesus using the day for a year principle so, Pastor Doug, what exactly is the day for a year in principle and maybe there are some examples you can use.
Doug: Well, very simply, in Bible prophecy most of the time when you're calculating times you apply a day for a year. Now, I've got to be very clear, it's not every time. It's like, often in Bible prophecy a woman represents a church. You read the context. For example, if you go to Daniel chapter 4 where it says: "Seven times Passover Nebuchadnezzar," those are seven literal seasons. That's seven literal years and how do you know that? It says, "Nebuchadnezzar was crazy for seven years, then insanity came." Daniel says, "You are the tree."
It's very clear that he says, "This is the fulfillment," and it's literal. But in those other prophecies where a date is given, off in the future, and it uses a year or a day, that would be a day equaling a year. And we have three verses where God illustrates that. And sometimes, the only way the prophecy will fit is if you use the day for year prophecy. You've got one in Numbers chapter 4 and I'll let you read Ezekiel 4:6, one. Numbers 4:34: "According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, 40 days, for each day you will bear your guilt, namely one year, namely 40 years, and you will know My rejection." The unfaithful spies, they spend 40 days looking at the Promised Land. They didn't believe God would bring them in. He said for every day you're going to now wander for a year so that's one.
Jëan: Ezekiel chapter 4, verse 6, it says: "And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days. I have laid on you a day for each year." And it's an interesting story here in Ezekiel 4. You have the prophet who was told to make a miniature of Jerusalem and then in a prominent place in the city he was to lie on one side, representing the enemy surrounding Jerusalem and then the principle each day for a year. So 40 days he would lie there and then it says, "I have given you each day for a year." So we find the principle even in a historical experience that Ezekiel did, the principle is being taught.
Doug: Yeah, and then another one is from Jesus Himself. And this is sort of a bonus verse. Luke 13, verse 31. Not long after John the Baptist was arrested, it says: "On that very day some Pharisees came, saying, 'Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.'" And so they said, "Look what he did to John. You better run for cover." And Jesus said, "Go, tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out devils and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I will be perfected,'" or completed. This happens, John was killed about six months into Christ's ministry. Jesus taught 3 1/2 years, so He says, "The third day I'm completed." It wasn't three days, it was three years. So even Christ here uses the day for the year principle. And I got another couple. I don't know if you want to say something about Revelation first.
Jëan: Next one that you have there is Revelation 12, verse 6. And here we're getting into actually some prophetic time periods. And we have that in Daniel chapter 8. We have some, Daniel 9 has prophetic time periods. Also, of course, Revelation does. Revelation 12:6: "Then the woman," the woman here is the church, "fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God that they should feed her there for 1260 days." Very important time period. We're talking about the 1260 years of papal supremacy from 538 all the way through to 1798. If you do the math, it's exactly 1260 years, if you do the fulfillment there of what that is. So using the day for a year principle fits into prophetic time.
Doug: Why don't you read the next verse too.
Jëan: The next one is also chapter 12, verse 14: "But the woman was given two wings as an eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she should be nourished for a time times and a half a time, from the face or the presence of the serpent." Now, a time in Bible prophecy is a year, right?
Doug: A cycle of the seasons.
Jëan: And Bible prophecy has 360 days. They would have to adjust their calendars every so many years to make up for a slight difference but Bible prophecy is 360 days. She got time, two times, that's three years and a half, that's a total of 1260 days, representing 1260 years. It's talking about the same time period in Revelation 12:6: 538 'til 1798.
Doug: Yeah, and it also in Revelation I believe it says 42 months. So the only way that 42 months equals 1260 and 3 1/2 years is if you have 30-day months so people thought, "Well, how do you know that they--it was a lunar calendar and they're using 360 days to the year?" Well, they're putting it in: 42 months is 1260. The only way that works is if the months are 30 days and so the Jews did use a lunar calendar. They didn't use a solar calendar like the Romans. And you might say, "Well, wait, if they had a year with 360 days, wouldn't that be out of synch with the rotation of the earth around the sun? Or, you know, the orbit of the--" Yeah, well, they knew that. They were very precise. They would add a month every 13 years to compensate. And so they kept their calendar actually very accurate.
Jëan: And then we find the same principle, remember, Revelation and Daniel are two sister prophetic books. We find the same principle in Daniel chapter 7, verse 25. It's talking about the little-horn power that persecutes the saints for a time times and a half a time. Again, 1260 years. And again, in Daniel chapter 12, verse 7: "And I heard a man clothed in linen, who was above the waters, and he held up his right hand, his left hand to heaven, swore by him who lives forever and ever that there should be a time, times, and a half a time." Again, that 1260-year time period, 538 'til 1798.
Doug: Yeah, and I should say, if it says a time, well, that's one cycle of the season. A times meant a pair or a couple. It was--it's a dual word. That means two. So you got one plus two and the dividing or half which is, of course, three and a half. Now, this time three and a half appears several times in the Bible. How long was the famine in Elijah's day? Three and a half years. You can also read about that in James. He prayed and the heavens were shut up for the space of three years and six months. How long did Jesus teach? Three and a half years. And how long was it from the death of Christ until Stephen was stoned and the gospel went to the Gentiles? Three and a half years. How long was it before they had the beauty pageant to find Esther in the book of Esther? It says: "In the third year of the reign of Ahasuerus there was a feast 180 days." If you have 360 days to a year, half of 360 is 180, 3 1/2 years. You find this time over and over again in the Bible.
So it then says in the same way, during the time of Elijah--this is very important for revelation. In the same way in the days of Elijah, there was 3 1/2 years when Jezebel persecuted the prophets, Elijah fled into the wilderness. You go to Revelation, it says there are 3 1/2 prophetic years where this woman in Revelation, Babylon, she persecutes the prophets, she's drunken with the blood of the saints, and the woman flees into the wilderness. So knowing the Old Testament story, it fits perfectly, except this is 538 to 1798. It's 1260 years, not 3 1/2 literal years.
Jëan: And then if you look in the Gospels, and this is just fascinating, Pastor Doug. You can talk about this as well, but the 3 1/2-year period is also found when talking about Jonah. And the verse here is Matthew chapter 12, verse 39. This is Jesus speaking, and He says, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; no sign will be given them, except the sign of the prophet Jonah." Now, of course, if you go to Jonah chapter 3:3-4, it talks about how that Jonah was called of God to go to Nineveh but he went and boarded a ship heading for Tarsus and ended up having a ride in a fish but finally he gets to Nineveh and he preaches. Well, the time period of the preaching is interesting there.
Doug: Yeah, Jesus said--you've really got to pay attention to Jesus to understand prophecy. Jesus said, "No sign is given but the sign of Jonah." He talks about Jonah's sufferings, three days and three nights, as a type of His sufferings that began Thursday night. It's not just the time in the tomb. Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Christ was paying for the sins of the world. And then there's another time period given. It says Jonah goes to Nineveh, an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
Now, the scholars aren't even sure does that mean that he rode like crazy to get from the coast of the Mediterranean to Nineveh in three days? Could be done but you'd have to ride night and day. Or is he saying it's such a big city it took three days to go around the city? And then it says: "And he enters the city, a day's journey." That means during the daylight hours. And then he preaches in 40 days it'll be destroyed. So you've got 3 1/2 and then 40. Jesus said Jonah is the sign to his generation. Jesus preached to the Jewish nation 3 1/2 years and then He said, "This generation will not pass away until there's not one stone left upon another in the temple." Forty years later, the temple was destroyed. So there you see again, a day for a year being applied.
Jëan: All right, we've got some questions, Pastor Doug, that's come in. This question is relating to Matthew chapter 24, verse 17, and Nicole is asking, "Is this passage of Scripture literal for us? In other words, do we need to drop everything and literally flee to the hills as we have it described in Matthew 24, verse 17?"
Doug: Yeah, I know the verse that they're talking about and there's parallel verses that you find in, I think, Luke 21 and also in Mark. But, yeah, I believe there's going to come a time when we're going to say, "This is it. We need to head for the hills." And what is that, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet: "Let him who's on the housetop not go down and take anything out of his house. Let him who is in the field not go back and get his clothes." And then he goes on to say, "Remember Lot's wife," and I think that's in Luke. Remember when he said, "Don't even look back," and he told--the angels told Lot, "Get out of Dodge right now." That's a paraphrase. He said, "You've got to get out of Sodom right now," and they lingered. The angels took them by the hand and said, "Run for the hills lest you be consumed." So what is the abomination of desolation? What is that sign for us, Pastor Ross, when we're supposed to do that?
Jëan: Well, we know back in Matthew 24 when Jesus was talking about it was the armies of Rome surrounding Jerusalem which was a sign of a destruction being near. Well, in a spiritual sense, Rome has a counterpart, not literal Rome but we have spiritual Rome or symbolic Rome which is papal Rome. It's still referred to as the Roman Catholic Church. There will come a time when we will have a sign given to us and those who know the Word of God, it has to do with the enforcing of the mark of the beast.
Again, in Revelation, the key issue is worship. Who do we worship? Do we worship God and keep His commandments or do we worship the beast power and keep the commandments and the traditions of the beast? God's people in the last days will have to make a choice, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Do we obey God and keep His commandments or do we set aside the commandments of God to honor manmade traditions? And when laws are passed in the United States and then quickly spread round the world, enforcing a particular day of worship that is contrary to the 4th commandment, the Sabbath commandment, then we know that the end is near.
And I think to us Christians who are studying the prophecies, we will recognize in that a sign when it's time to start moving out of the big cities and make our way to smaller towns and more country settings, because we know after this mark of the beast issue comes and there's the final judgments that come under the seven last plagues. You don't want to be in the big cities when the plagues begin to fall. You want to be in a rural, more country setting.
Doug: You know, Pastor Ross, I just can't let this subject pass without mentioning, well, just look at the times we're living in right now where governments are saying to churches, "You can't gather," and this week the president said it is a national right. Churches are now able to get together and if the governors say they can't, we're going to have a federal statement to overrule the governors. And just the fact that there is so much attention being given to whether or not Christians can gather, right now, just makes us see that this could happen someday, yeah.
Jëan: Very quickly. Look how quickly they closed the churches and gatherings; in a matter of weeks it happened, so. All right, we have a question from Lacticia and she is calling--or she is asking, I should say, "Pastor Doug, what is your advice on studying the Bible and how do we read it in context?"
Doug: Well, it's probably the same thing that your English teachers would tell you when it came to reading, is if you're going to study a particular verse, make sure you've got the background that's happening historically, understand something about the times, know who the characters are, read in the context who are the characters involved. It sometimes helps to know what their positions are, because that gives us context for why they're saying what they're saying. And then read the verses before and after, so that you really see where the verse is coming from, where the passage is coming from and where it's going. And that's what it means really, to read--that's a simple answer.
Jëan: And comparing Scripture with Scripture, helping to get the context.
Doug: Yeah, read other similar verses on the same subject.
Jëan: All right, here's an interesting question. This person is asking, Pastor Doug, if you can comment about the "Great week of time," and they're referring to the earth being about 6,000 years old.
Doug: Yes, the great week of time is a theory that's been around for hundreds of years that I think has some validity. And most of the Protestant Reformers and Adventist founders believe that the plan of salvation would be consummated in 7,000 years, meaning the end of the millennium and the earth made new, that God was going to fit that all in. And because, right now, we're living near the end of the 6000 years, some are beginning to try and pick dates.
Now, that's the danger of talking about this. No man knows the day or the hour. Don't try and fix this to a date. But I do think that you do see a pattern where, for the first 2000 years of the world's history, God presents the gospel through the patriarchs, you know, Noah, Adam, Methuselah, Enoch. Then Abraham is born. For the next 2,000 years, God presents the gospel through the nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, and then Jesus comes 2,000 years after Abraham, and now here we are, 2,000 years after that, God presents the gospel through the last epic, through spiritual is really the church. And then you're supposed to live and reign with Christ's revelation for 1,000 years. It's like a 1,000-year Sabbath and so people have said, "Well, if Christ comes at the end of the 6000 years and we're going to live and reign with Him," there's a lot of Bible stories to kind of bear this out, where you've got six days of work, a day with the Lord's like 1000 years. They farmed their land for six years, they let it rest the seventh. Jesus said, "I've been sowing the seed." Revelation: He's coming to harvest when He comes.
There's a lot of--a servant could serve Jewish--could have a Jewish slave for six years. At the end of six years, he'd go free. And it's just a lot of analogies so people have said, "This is--we're living very close to the end." But don't try and fix a date because it could be sooner than you think, "except those days be shortened, no flesh would be saved." Could be a little later than you think because look at all the parables Jesus talks about delay. When it looks like it's later than you think. So we've got to be ready but I think we are living in the last generation.
Jëan: Okay, that brings us to our next section and an important theme that we find in Bible prophecy. We're identifying or talking about the little horn power. Now when we say the little horn power, we're really focusing on a passage of Scripture that we find in Daniel chapter 7 and, just to give the context to this, in Daniel chapter 7 you have a repeat of the kingdoms described in Daniel 2. You've got Babel and Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and then you've got Rome divided up amongst ten horns which represents the ten divisions of western Rome, the ten Germanic or barbarian tribes that carved up the territory of western Europe that Rome controlled. And then it talks about a little-horn power that would arise after these ten horns.
So after Europe was divided up amongst these various Germanic kingdoms, a power would arise. It would uproot three of the kingdoms but it would end up persecuting the saints for 1260 years. Now, this was a very important prophecy, especially during the time of the Reformation because they identified that little-horn power as being the papal church, the papacy that did rise up after the division of western Europe. There were three tribes: the Ostrogoths, the Vandals, and the Heruli, that were uprooted in order to make way for the power of the Pope, not only to be a religious power but now also a political power. And we have the establishment of the Vatican and the papacy in 538 as a power that could also exercise civil authority and not just religious power. So the Reformers identified this and that was a big part of the Reformation, calling people to a renewed commitment to the Word of God and not the traditions of the church.
Doug: Yeah, I remember when I first started studying these prophecies, I thought why is it comparing these world empires to horns? To me, that seemed a little bizarre if you grew up in New York City. But you've got to keep in mind that the Hebrews, it's like when Moses told the Pharisees, he says, "These people are shepherds." They had sheep and goats and bulls and they saw that it was often the ram with the largest rack of horns that would rule the roost. And so they portrayed these powers with the different horns. You got the ram and the goat that are fighting together. You got the beast. Matter of fact, the beast with seven heads and ten horns appears several times in Daniel, Revelation 12, Revelation 13, Revelation 17, the woman sits on it.
So knowing that those horns don't represent any one particular king, but kingdoms, and one reason you know that is when Alexander the Great died, he was that one notable horn, but then his four generals, they began four kingdoms. It wasn't just them; it was also their posterity. And so it just represents these four kingdoms. So the little horn is not just any one particular pope. It's talking about, really, the papacy, that power that there would be a supreme bishop that would be ruling over church and state in Europe.
Jëan: Just to give you a few little identifying marks, if you're new to this, maybe you've never heard this little-horn power as representing the papacy, let me just give you a few identifying marks quickly. Number one, Daniel chapter 7, verse 7 and 8, tells us that the little-horn would arise from the fourth beast. We know the fourth beast is Rome and we know that the papal power did arise from Rome. Of course, its capital is still situated in Rome today. It would arise amongst the ten horns and that's the divisions of western Europe. And, of course, the Vatican did arise right in the heart of the Roman empire. It arose after the horns. The papacy arose to power, really, to the height of its strength was 538. This was after the other kingdoms had already established and carved up the Roman empire. It was different from the other horns. This is Daniel 7:24. It was not just a political power or a secular power. It was also a religious power. It didn't have its own military but it used the militaries of the other nations that it controlled. It had a look more stout than its fellows, meaning it would have more power, it would rule a much wider territory.
The amazing thing about the Vatican or the papacy, not only did they rule in Italy, but they ruled in France, in Germany up until the time of the Reformation, even in England for a period of time, and many of the other, Spain, Portugal. So the papal power controlled secular powers and the kings would have to get the permission of the Pope in order for them to get married or get divorced or sometimes even go to war. So it was a very powerful entity during the Dark Ages.
We spoke about this little-horn power uprooting the three horns, that's the Ostrogoths, the Vandals, and the Heruli. "It spoke great words against the Most High," this is Daniel 7:25. It's not a secret that the Pope does claim to be the representative of God on earth, Vicarius Filii Dei or Vicar of the Son of God. We also note that when there is an official statement from the papacy, a written statement, that that claims to be infallible. So in the same authority of the Word of God, so many examples of where the papacy and the Vatican claims equality with God, the ability to forgive sins, to put people out of heaven or bring people in.
Doug: Now, you mentioned something there. I thought you were going to keep going but you said the official title for the Pope is Vicarius Filii Dei, and it says the number of his name would add up to 666 and it's interesting that when the Caesars were ruling, the first six Roman numerals add up to 666. You've got, you know, the I, the V, the X, the D, I'm leaving something out here. And then you have the M or is it the C, yeah. Anyway, first six Roman numerals add up to 666 and the name of the official title of the Pope and if you doubt that this is the title, you can read that book that John Paul II wrote, called "Threshold of Hope." It's in the first or second page, said, "Our title is Vicarius Filii Dei." The Latin name adds up to 666.
Jëan: And of course, there's a lot of additional information we don't have time to deal with all of that but the Bible clearly identifies the little-horn power as being the papacy, but then that brings us to the next theme and this ties in with our memory verse for our study today, "Unto 2300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed." Now, this is a very important truth but it's somewhat of a forgotten truth amongst Protestants today. Really, it's the Adventists that are the ones who are proclaiming this. Many of the other Protestant denominations have pretty much forgotten their original roots where they came from. But the subject of the investigative judgment. Of course, we find it in Daniel chapter 8. We also find it in Daniel--well, it deals with it in chapter 7. Why is that important? And what's the significance of the investigative judgment?
Doug: Well, when you think about it, Jesus said, "Behold, I come. My reward is with Me." He knows what the rewards are when He comes. So clearly, some judgment or investigation takes place before he comes. And you can read where Peter says, "Judgment must begin at the house of God." So there is a judgment. He doesn't need to have a pre-Advent judgment for the lost because Jesus says, "They're already condemned." He says, "I didn't come to condemn you. The lost are condemned." He said, "I came to save them."
But those who have taken the name of Christ, are they genuinely converted? And there's a judgment that takes place for them. And you can find also this is in Ezekiel 9, talks about those in the sanctuary that receive a special seal or mark. They're saved from this final judgment. So there's what they call a pre-Advent judgment that you read about and it's foretold in Daniel chapter 8 where it says: "The beast's power would cast the truth to the ground and practice and prosper," and then in verse 14, there'll be 2300 days and then the sanctuary will be cleansed.
Jëan: Now, of course, that 2300-day prophecy begins in Daniel chapter 9 with the decree for the Jews to go back and restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That was given in 457 BC, before Christ. Adding 2300 years to 457 BC, you come to the amazing date of 1844. So something very significant occurred in 1844 and that corresponds with the Great Awakening. We call it the Great Advent Awakening and Revival around that same time period, where people started studying the prophecies, especially the prophecies of Daniel. They recognized that something significant would happen at the end of the 2300 days.
Now, they understood the cleansing of the sanctuary as being the Second Coming of Christ but they didn't understand the sanctuary as being representing a heavenly work of judgment that Jesus does in heaven prior to the Second Coming and the cleansing of the sanctuary in Bible prophecy, the church is sometimes likened unto the sanctuary. So there's a cleansing in the hearts and the lives of people. And this is a judgment that precedes the Second Coming. So we're living in that time right now. We don't know when it's going to end. It's been going on for over 150 years but it's a sobering thought to think that this is one of the final works of intercession and cleansing that Jesus does as our high priest before probation closes. Seven last plagues fall and Jesus comes.
Doug: You know, when you read in Revelation 2 and 3, it gives the seven ages stages of the church history from Ephesus and the last one being Laodicea. We entered the last age of the church in 1844, and the word "Laodicea," what's that mean?
Jëan: People being judged.
Doug: People being judged. And it's an interesting year in 1844. Just a couple of tidbits. First electronic message, first email, was 1844. Samuel Morse who was a painter but he also invented Morse Code, he sent the message, "What hath God wrought?" That's when they invented the telegraph wires. In 1844 you have the birth, really, of the communist manifesto, atheism. In 1844 you have the birth of evolutionism with Darwin's Origin of Thesis*. He went on his Beagle journey. And so this was just a massive turning point, plus you've got the great Advent movement.
So not only in 1844 did Jesus enter into the last phase as our high priest in heaven of judgment, something happened here on earth in 1844 so the sanctuary would be cleansed. Now, we know he's cleansing up above but it's harder to get a video of that. We see something happened on earth in 1844. When Jesus didn't come as many of the--these are Sunday-keeping Adventists. It's not the Seventh-day Adventists. They thought Christ was coming. He didn't come.
They all began to come together, many of them, from different churches and study the Bible and say, "Where have we gone wrong?" And they began to rediscover Bible truths that had been cast to the ground during the Dark Ages: the truth about salvation by faith, baptism by immersion, your body being the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Sabbath truth that had been lost, that wicked people or the lost are not burning in hell as soon as they die, the Resurrection doesn't take place until after the judgment. There are just so many truths that had been lost and this movement began where he was cleansing his earthly sanctuary during that time.
Jëan: Well, Pastor Doug, in just the last few minutes that we have, we want to take just a few moments to talk about one of your favorite subjects and that's typology in prophecy. How the stories of the Old Testament point to Jesus and how it helps validate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Doug: Absolutely, and there are so many examples of Christ in the Bible. You know, I'm not going to have time but to talk about just a few of them. Paul gives the principle here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. He said, "Brethren, I don't want you to be unaware that our Fathers were under the cloud and they all passed through the cloud. They were baptized into Moses." Now, nobody's baptized into Moses. Who's saved by Moses? Moses is a type of Christ. He was a great mediator. He's a great law-giver. He's a great judge, the great prophet, the great savior. "They were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea."
So in the same way the children of Israel were saved from Egypt, the Pharaoh being like the devil who held them in slavery, Moses comes, says, "Let them go." And then the people are baptized in the Red Sea so that's like baptism, and then the pillar of fire comes. It's like the fire baptism. Jesus said, "You must be born of the water. You must be born of the Spirit or you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." That's the Promised Land that He led them into. Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up," Christ on the cross. People had to look at Moses holding that defeated serpent on a pole, and Jesus on the cross reminds us that through His blood He has defeated the devil. And when John the Baptist says, "Behold the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world," Christ is that Lamb.
So you see the typology in the Passover Lamb. Jesus is that type. David is a type. Jesus is called the Son of David. He's a type of Christ. Joseph is a wonderful type of Christ. He's sold by his brothers and yet he forgives them. And he feeds the whole world bread. It comes through Joseph. And he comes to his own, his own don't know who he is. They don't recognize him, but he recognizes them. And it's just--there's so many analogies in the Bible of Christ, so much typology of Christ, in the plan of salvation, that it's just wonderful to think about.
Jëan: You can find that throughout all of the Old Testament where so many of the stories and experiences point to Jesus as being the Messiah and the Savior. We're running out of time but we wanted to thank you for all of the questions that you sent and I was just looking through some of the questions that came in. Really good questions where we're not going to have time to deal with all of them today. Hopefully, next week, we want you to tune in again and if we didn't get to your question, go ahead and send it again. I know there was a question asking about the two witnesses and some of these great Bible questions. We'd love to answer it and hopefully next week we'll have some time to deal with that.
Again, we just want to remind you about our free offer. It is one of the "Amazing Facts" study guides, entitled "Right on Time." And we'll be happy to send this to anybody who calls and asks. All you have to do is call the number 866-788-3966, ask for Offer number 131 and we'll send it to you. You can also get a digital copy of the lesson by just texting the code "SH057" to the number 40544, and we'll send you a digital download of the lesson. And again, Pastor Doug, what an important study, dealing with typology. Maybe you want to just close with a word of prayer?
Doug: Absolutely, loving Lord, we thank you for this great study that we've had today and there's so much more to learn. Help us to be ready as we're entering the last days and to follow your Word. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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Diana Dixon: My name is Diana Dixon. I'm a professional truck driver. In August 4, 2011, I stopped to help in an accident.
Male: Diana Dixon also tried to help. She parked her semi, jumped out, and headed toward the pick-up. That's when she saw vehicles barreling toward her so she reacted by jumping off 475 to a road below.
Diana: Well, a pick-up had clipped a semi, and I stopped to help and I saw it in the mirror, so I walked back. A gentleman told me, he says, "Hey, you know, everything's okay. Call 911." And I looked over at the pick-up and there was a black pick-up over there and he was okay. At about that time, I don't know how far I walked, but I walked far enough and a semi hit him and it imploded. I knew it was going to hit me. I had 30 seconds to decide and I decided to jump."
Diana: [recorded phone call] Yeah, I jumped off the bridge. My back's broken.
Dispatcher: Where are you at?
Diana: [recorded phone call] I don't know.
Diana: Fractured my pelvis in 24 places, 5 broken ribs, C5 neck fracture, I had a collapsed lung, I had a lacerated bladder, I was bleeding internally, I had no marks on the outside of me at all but a scrape where my arm had scraped the concrete. From the chest down, I was on fire. I was a dispatcher for a year after the accident and I went back, finished my degree, and I went to Pittsburgh. Threw a backpack over my back, walked like all the other students. I ran a marathon and I'm--since then I've been back to truck-driving.
There was a gentleman I worked with and one day he was walking in and he walked up to my desk and I was reading my Bible. And he says, "Are you a believer?" And I said, "Yes." And he gave me some "Amazing Facts" study guides and it just--it was an eye-opening experience for me. I mean, I started reading them and I had a bunch of questions to ask him, so I got online and I got on the "Amazing Facts" web page and I just found information just that I'd never known.
I went back to work as a truck driver because that was my ministry. It was my ministry before the accident and I was driving down the road and I just needed a connection and I was flipping through and somehow I ended up on YouTube and next thing I know, "Amazing Facts," one of those things would come up there and I listened to it. I'm driving down the road, I got 11 hours of driving. So I listened to one, I listened to another one. And the more I listened to him, everything that I thought in my heart, I'd just click on to one of these YouTubes and there he was giving me the answer. I walked in Seventh-day Adventist Church for the first time and I felt at home. I was baptized in the Seventh-day Adventist Church because I had found the truth that I just was searching for and I'd been praying about.
"Amazing Facts" has been such an inspiration and important for my coming back into ministry that I want to be able to give back to anyone that I can and "Amazing Facts" is the backbone of my ministry. My name is Diana Dixon. Thank you for changing my life.
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Male: I had a lot of pressure as a pastor's kid to perform. They're not allowed to make the same mistakes as everyone else. Not only are people looking at you, but they're judging your father according to what they see in you. After a while, you get tired of carrying that load as a child. By the time it got time for me to leave home, I was pretty much finished with all that. I just--I wasn't good enough and I didn't belong in there. So when I left home, I went to the world, at a dead run. You know, I partied and went to work and, you know, was living my life as the way I wanted to. And I just wanted to be left alone.
One day, I was driving my motorcycle with some buddies of mine. All of a sudden, I had oil running everywhere, all up and down my arm and across my legs, and rippling down the tank in the wind. And we loaded it up on a trailer and sent it to the shop to have it fixed. So I went to pick it up and the mechanic came out. He said, "You know," he said, "we got your front end rebuilt." He said, "That wasn't the bad part." He said, "The bad part was the only thing holding the front tire on was the weight of the motorcycle."
So all I would have had to have done was accelerate quickly and front tire would have came off. And it got my attention, it got me to thinking, "You know, you hear a lot of people talking about, you know, the relationship that they have with Jesus and all that, and I didn't even know what that was supposed to look like. It began to work on my mind. I think God was beginning to speak to me. I believe that you can say I may be a poster child for the shepherd lost sheep story because I wasn't looking for God. I didn't really care. But He cared about me. And He came and got me.
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Doug: Hello, friends. We're here in the Philippines overlooking the Taal Volcano and Lake, which is one of the most interesting pieces of geography in the whole world. For one thing, this great caldera was once the biggest volcano in the world and now it holds a lake that holds another volcano that has another little lake in it that has another little island in it.
This volcano has erupted six times in a major way since the 1500s and even in 1911 there was an eruption where over 1300 people died, killed by the smoke and the ash that covered the community. There were tsunamis that came from the lake and destroyed the villages that surrounded the borders of the lake. In fact, this is one of the most carefully monitored seismic places in the Philippines. This volcano's being watched all the time and they've noticed as of 2006 that it appears that the water temperatures are going up. There's increased seismic activity.
In other words, they know that this volcano is a ticking time bomb prepared to blow. And it's very interesting because this place is a place of great seismic activity but, in spite of the fact that volcanologists know this is going to blow again someday, it is a popular tourist destination. They're fighting for the real estate, they're building like mad, and sit on the edge of disaster.
It makes us think about how God has given us so many warnings in his Word that the world is going to end, that Jesus is going to come, that the heavens will dissolve with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Seeing then that all these things will be dissolved, what kind of people should we be? In all holy conversation and godliness. Friends, are you becoming distracted with the tranquil views of the world? Or are you preparing for the next world? Are you getting ready for the big bang?