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Dunlap SDA Church

Daniel 11: Damsteegt

P. Gerard Damsteegt

Daniel 11 - Part 1: Great Controversy with Persia, Greece and Pagan Rome

Heavenly Father, may the words that I speak and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight.

The topic is a prophetic history of Daniel for today.

But the 45 verses, only basically the last 5 speak of where we are living today.

And so most people forget the rest and jump immediately at the end.

You can do this, But then you should ask yourself the question, why are there so many interpretations?

There's a whole pleroma of interpretations.

And the reason is because the first part was not understood, and then people come to all kind of conclusions at the very end.

So that's not what we like to do and therefore this morning we spent time on the great controversy in the past with Persia, Greece, and Rome, and those are the first 29 verses.

So this morning, we will study 29 prophecies.

This afternoon, it is from verse 30 to 45, another 15.

But you will see then at the end how important it is to understand the beginning before you can come to a conclusion for the end.

Now instead of jumping immediately in Daniel 11, you need to know some principles of interpretation.

Now for some of you that is, I'm not in it.

If you're not in this, you will never come to a fair conclusion at the end.

So you need to know and understand how Daniel and the Bible present itself.

And so the first principle is a biblical, historical or historicist method of interpretation.

This is basically so that the prophecy is relevant from the time of Daniel without interruption till the very end.

This is in contrast to people who are preterists, who say, okay, it is only in the past, or futurists, it's only in the future.

No, it is a continuation, a continual development.

If you don't believe on this, you will never come to a conclusion, right conclusion.

Then the outline of Daniel 11 is to be parallel to Daniel 2, 7, and 8.

It's very important, but each prophecy, Daniel 2 is in bare bones, Daniel 7 a little bit more, Daniel 8 more, and Daniel 11, most extensive explanation of the same prophecies but in a different form.

So here then Daniel 2, 7, and 8 represent the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome in symbols.

But Daniel 11 presents some of the most prominent rulers of those kingdoms literally.

Now you would say, you know, if you go and see it in a literal explanation, then it would be more relevant.

And we hang around to all the symbols, and with the symbols you can go into many different ways.

But you don't focus on the little things.

This chapter, 11, follows the Christocentric, cross-centered interpretation of Daniel 9 that determines whether we deal with literal Israel, with its literal geographical areas, or spiritual Israel, with its spiritual global universal perspective.

And so Daniel 9 is the key to the understanding of Daniel 11.

If you don't understand this, you're lost.

So therefore it is very important, Daniel 9 is a key element to unravel all the prophecies there.

So the great controversy with Persia and the vision of Daniel 11 starts with Daniel 10.

And if you turn in your Bibles to Daniel 10, verse 12 to 14, you find then a controversy and conflict.

The angel Gabriel shares some information.

Actually, when Daniel started to pray, at the beginning of his prayer, the angel Gabriel already responded.

Because the Prince of Persevice stood him and the Gabriel had to work 3 weeks before Daniel's prayer could be answered.

And then not only Gabriel, but then Michael, Christ, had to come and give him a push.

And then it says there that then after this I have to go and fight with the king, the prince of Greece, and then the king of Rome, and then the king of Germany, the king of the United States, the prince.

Each kingdom has a prince and those princes are demons and God tries to fight against those demons to get his prophecy being fulfilled.

And so today there is a tremendous struggle also for the mind of our president.

And so here you find in the introduction of the great controversy among the nations.

Here is the first prophecy here in Daniel 11, verse 2.

Behold, I shall stand up yet 3 kings in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than they all.

And by this strength, his strength through all his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.

You have 4 kings And the last 1 is the richest.

And what are the 4 kings that succeed Cyrus?

In fact, Herodotus writes, the Greek historian writes about Xerxes, he came with an army of 5000000 against Greece.

So the next kingdom then is the kingdom of Greece.

And a mighty king shall stand up, that rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

And here you find his kingdom all around the eastern part of the Mediterranean.

And then the angel fights with Alexander.

Prophecy of chapter 4 chapter 11 verse 4.

And when he, Alexander, shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken.

You can see here he's on his deathbed, he's dying at the age of 32 because of an overdose of intoxicating alcohol.

And he shall be divided, this kingdom towards 4 winds of heaven and not to his posterity.

So none of his offsprings rules, not according to his dominion which he ruled.

For his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.

Alexander's kingdom was divided into 4 parts, ruled by 4 of his generals, Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy.

And you know, this will be extremely important if you're giving Bible studies, because none of the other Christians really deal with prophecy.

And you can show with amazing accuracy how God controls the nations.

And here it took me a long while when I went to Asia Minor, to Turkey.

I went to museum, to museum, to museum, looking for coins because coins have the picture of the kings.

And each 1 of those, Cassander, Lysimachus, and Lucas, and Ptolemy, are represented by those coins.

Its parallel events are connected with the 4 heads of the leper and the 4 horns of Daniel 8.

You see here how beautifully it explains?

Now the prophecy deals now exclusively to the King of the North and the King of the South.

And unless you understand an Israel-centered view of prophecy, you don't get the message.

The focus of the prophecy, the whole of Daniel 11, is God's people.

Now some people say, oh yeah, you know, the final crisis is between the papacy and the Islam.

Daniel 11 - Part 2: Great Controversy with Papal Rome

Precious Heavenly Father, again we would invite you to be here to guide our minds through the Holy Spirit, that we may understand those last texts and prophecies that affect us right now here.

And may we clearly understand our position.

And now may the blessings of the Lord and the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.

This morning we discussed the great controversy with Greece, with Persia, Greece and pagan Rome, and they were extremely relevant for the time in which people lived there.

But for many of us it may not be that relevant because we don't live in Persian times, in Greek times, and in pagan Roman times.

And yet all those prophecies for the generations that were living there are very important.

But we are living now under the last phase of the Roman Empire, and that is papal Rome.

And to us, those councils and those prophecies may seem even more relevant than the past, the previous ones.

But at the same time, they're all important and show us the correctness of the prophetic word and that the prophetic word is not human opinion but can be trust throughout the centuries.

And so for the people in Jesus' time, it was very, very important to see the fulfillment of pagan Rome.

Yet to us, papal Rome is very, very important because it is a power that is right now with us.

So now we are discussing the transition from pagan to papal Rome.

The prophecy here is of Daniel 1130, and that is very important because many people are confused what takes place here.

It says, therefore, the ships of Chittim shall come against him.

Therefore he shall be grieved and return and have in the nation against the Holy Covenant.

He shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

So let us now try to unpack this important prophecy.

Fulfillment for the ships of Chittim shall come against him.

Him is again the power of the king of the north.

But then it says here, therefore he shall be grieved.

Now, against whom is this attack directed?

The spirit of prophecy has given here a very important insight to us on this section, and it has been really an anchor to us in the explanation of the next 15 verses.

Spirit of prophecy commented, the prophecy of the 11th chapter of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment.

In the 30th verse, a power is spoken of that shall be grieved and return and have indignation against the Holy Covenant.

That is the 13th volume of the manuscript, Release, page 394.

Here the prophecy introduces a new phase of Rome, namely Papal Rome.

And in fact, if you read the manuscript released there, she continues to quote a number of verses to verse, I think, verse 36, all dealing with papal Rome.

And so therefore we are very clear that here we have now the new and final face of the Roman, of the King of the North.

In this emblem of the papacy, that is still very, very important, There are 2 keys.

Peter, which many of our people that went on our tour did, they climbed to the top of the St.

Peter, you look down and you see this mosaic in colorful flowers.

And the first key is the papacy claims the ruler of the church, the spiritual ruler, And the second 1 is the ruler of the secular dimension.

So here the papacy clearly states, it is the power in the world that has dominion over the spiritual realm as well as the secular realm.

Of course, this finishes, for those who study history, with 1798, when General Berthier on Capitoline Hill by the former forum proclaimed the termination of the secular power of the papacy.

So there is only 1 key now that is relevant.

Nevertheless, papacy still claims, even if it is not loud, it still claims to have also the dominance of the secular power.

And so here now we are interested, introduced by the conflict of the barbarian kingdoms with papal Rome.

The fulfillment of this prophecy in verse 30 says, as a result of the attacks of the ships of Chittim against the kings of the north, papal Rome, he shall be grieved and return.

Now at that time if you study history, then you see that Rome desperately tried to defeat the Vandals who ruled the Mediterranean Sea.

For about 40 years, they were in control over this.

Kenserick, the leader of the Vandals, They sailed in the spring and let the ships go where the wind directed them.

And many times they went to Italy, they got on shore, and attacked the city of Rome, plundered the city of Rome.

And so, I mean, that was, you know, to the Vandals that was providence.

And the Vandals considered the Catholics as heretics.

Yet the Catholics considered the Vandals as heretics.

And so it went back and forth, back and forth.

And in my trip to North Africa, especially there in Tunisia, I went there to a large archaeological dig for many, many acres.

And there in that dig, there was the only remnant in this world of the Vandals.

A little chapel and it was called the Vandal Chapel.

It is the only evidence that we have of 1 of these 3 horns being picked up.

And so Rome's desperate effort to defeat the Vandals who ruled the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the invasions by other barbarian nations, utterly failed.

Thus, Rome saw its providences ravaged and its internal city looted by other barbarian kingdoms, such as the Goths, the Huns, and the Heruli, representing the first 4 trumpet scourges, Revelation 8, the first trumpets.

God is using those trumpets to punish an apostate Christianity.

Very interesting how this all works together.

These enemies of the papacy were the kingdoms who had adopted the Arian form of Christianity that the Catholics considered heresy.

And there is the fight and the plundering and many sections of the city of Rome were destroyed by the vandals.

Then what is the papal Rome's indignation against the Holy Covenant?

Papal Rome's indignation against the Holy Covenant was revealed in its efforts to suppress the Holy Scriptures, the Book of the Covenant, and its persecution of Bible believers.

See, that is the indignation against the Holy Covenant.

In time, by adopting pagan teachings into the Christian faith, the Roman Catholic Church became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire.

Thus it obtains intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant, through which it acquires military support against the enemies and the enemies were the true Christians.

It's interesting here a number of years ago that appears in 1 of the newspapers, a study in which the Vatican admits that the Bible was considered by them once a banned book.

They have a whole index of banned books in the Bible of Donald M.

Now they still wouldn't like to openly reveal this, but that was true.

And so the conflict between the barbarian and Aryan kingdoms and the papacy here, and here you see a major part of Rome in fire.

From this text onward, and that is then, a new phase of the King of the North begins.

The papacy is upset because of the barbarian invasions by heretics.

The papacy made desperate effort, that are the chips of Schittem, that is the naval battles.

And every battle the Roman Empire lost with great consternation.

The papacy made desperate efforts to protect the city of Rome, the capital of the Roman Church.

The papacy's indignation against the covenant focused on the destruction of the heretics like the gods, vandals, and heruli.

And finally, of course, you know, the gods, the vandals, and the heruli were eradicated by the papacy.

Those are the 3 horns that were plucked up.

Then, the same time, Rome corrupts God's church.

Verse 31, and the arms shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate.

Now, first we will look at the arms and then how to pollute it, what is the pollution of the sanctuary of strength.

And then the daily sacrifice is taken away and the abomination of desolation is being set up.

The papacy begins now to attack God's people through 2 major rulers, Clovis, the king of the Franks, and Justinian, the emperor of the Roman Empire.

The fulfillment Here begins the attack on God's people by the papacy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire was divided into 2 pieces, the Western and the Eastern Empire.

And so the Western Empire fell as a result of the uproot of these 3 horns.

The phrase, the arms shall stand on his part, reveals that the papacy is to be supported by arms, military power of the secular powers.

The rise of the papacy was especially due to the military support of Clovis, the king of the Franks, and Justinian Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.

And the first kingdom that accepted the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church was the Franks, the leadership of Colovus, the king of the Franks.

He was a tremendous fighter, pagan, and how did he become a Christian?

He admired the beauty of 1 of the Catholic princes, Clothilde.

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Daniel 11: Damsteegt

Daniel 11 - Part 1: Great Controversy with Persia, Greece and Pagan Rome

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