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Battle Creek Tabernacle SDA Church

These Things We Know

Chris Holland

These Things We Know: God is Faithful

These Things We Know: God is Sovereign

These Things We Know: God is Good

These Things We Know: God Is the Relentless Redeemer

God Still Speaks Part 1

God Still Speaks Part 2

These Things We Know: God Wins

These Things We Know: God is the Deliverer

These Things We Know: God is the Great Teacher

These Things We Know: God is a Friend

These Things We Know: God Knows the End From the Beginning

These Things We Know: God is the Author

These Things We Know: God is the Finisher

These Things We Know: God is the Promise Keeper Part 1

These Things We Know: God is the Promise Keeper Part 2

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 1

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 2

These Things We Know: God Stands for Us

2006, Laura's story almost lost her husband to a brain tumor.

And in the midst of that trial, in the midst of that tribulation in her life, she wrote the song, Blessings.

We pray for peace, we pray for comfort, we pray for protection, we pray for healing.

What if your blessings come through raindrops?

What if your healing comes through tears?

What if it is that that takes to know that He's near?

And what if the trials of this life are God's mercy in disguise?

And then that very poignant line, this is not our home.

And the end of the story is, this is not our final home.

Father in heaven, as we study your word today, we pray that you would speak to us in very loud, very clear message that helps us not only to be comforted but helps us to have hope that while we endure this place is not our final home.

This week on October the 1st, 2024, the nation of Iran launched 200 ballistic missiles into the nation of Israel.

The attack has been said to be retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Narallah.

The videos that captured the attack are a bit surreal as you see flashes of light in the middle of the night, missiles being intercepted by defense systems and some missiles actually hitting their targets.

Israel has publicly stated that there will be a military response And so the world now waits anxiously, anticipating what will come next.

And while the world waits, wondering what will happen in the Middle East, some Bible teachers and Bible preachers have called this event a direct fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

These teachers believe that the next major event in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy will in fact be the secret rapture.

These preachers and teachers are generally a part of a category called dispensationalists and they have an understanding of God's prophetic outline of history that ends in the great secret rapture of the church.

They place great importance of the regathering of the Jewish people in their homeland and and Israel officially becoming a nation on May the 14th, 1948.

And while I do not doubt the sincerity of these teachers and preachers, their teachings are not in alignment with the Bible's prophetic outline, God's clear outline of what will happen in the future.

And while the events of last week might be able to be seen as a general fulfillment of the words of Jesus in Matthew 24, you will hear of wars and rumors of war.

There is no precise date fulfillment prophecy with these events in mind.

There, excuse me, neither the attack on Israel, nor Israel's foundation as a nation, nor Israel's formation as a nation.

And unfortunately, there are even some Seventh-day Adventists who have become confused about Bible prophecy as they listen to these preachers and teachers and others and have not studied Bible prophecy for themselves.

Unfortunately, many have fallen the way of speculative and sometimes fanatical approaches to Bible prophecy.

Today, we will once again turn our study and attention to the book of Daniel and we will open to the seventh chapter of Daniel.

If you have your Bibles with you, please open them to Daniel chapter 7.

If you don't have a Bible with you today, many of our Pews have a Pew Bible.

I would invite you to take out that Pew Bible and open up to Daniel chapter 7.

Today as we open Daniel chapter 7 we want to continue to understand the things, these things that we know And unfortunately for many of us have forgotten.

Does the turmoil of the Middle East serve as an imminent sign of World War III?

Is it an imminent sign of the second coming of Jesus?

What I'd like for us to do today is actually to go back in time to another time, an earlier time of turmoil in the Middle East.

Nabonidus, the king of Babylon, the son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar, had decided that he wanted to move.

And so he decided to move to Tima in Arabia.

And in that decision to move from Babylon to Arabia, he assigned his son Belshazzar the charge of the affairs of Babylon.

Belshazzar became co-regent or co-king with him in Babylon.

Here in chapter 7 of the book of Daniel we need to understand that chronologically these events actually took place prior to the events of Daniel chapter 5.

So then in 550 BC, there was turmoil in the Middle East.

There were wars and rumors of wars around the land as there was a strengthening small nation in the north.

That strengthening small nation would eventually invade Babylon.

And the events of Daniel chapter 5 would occur 11 years after the prophecy here in Daniel chapter 7.

What about God's people, the Jewish people in the land of Babylon?

It had been 55 years since they had been captured and taken captive in Babylon.

With Nabonidus' leaving of the city of Babylon, it appeared that the nation was weakening.

And it is in the midst of that that the vision of Daniel chapter 7 was given.

Daniel chapter 7 beginning in verse 1 and reading through verse 7.

In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed.

Then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it.

Daniel said, I was looking in my vision by night and behold the 4 winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and 4 great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from 1 another.

The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle and I kept looking until its wings were plucked and it was lifted from the ground and made to stand on 2 feet like a man and a human mind was given to it and behold another beast a second 1 resembling a bear and it was raised up on 1 side and 3 ribs were in its mouth between its teeth, and thus they said to it, arise, devour much meat.

After this, I kept looking, and behold, another 1 like a leopard, which had on its back 4 wings of a bird.

The beast also had 4 heads and dominion was given to it.

After this, I kept looking in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong.

It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet.

And it was different from all the beasts that were before it.

We know this for certain that these creatures that are depicted in Daniel 7 are not creatures that we will see any time in the local zoo.

A lion with wings, a leopard with 4 heads and 4 wings, a bear that is lopsided, and an indescribable beast that had iron teeth.

What did it mean then and what does it mean for you and me today?

When you read this chapter, 2 of the most frequently used words in this chapter are the words kingdom and dominion.

This chapter is no doubt a part of God's process in helping individuals understand that while there are many kingdoms and many kings who are seeking dominion, ultimately it is God who has His kingdom and His dominion that will reign supreme and forever.

But in order for each of us to see, in order for each of us to understand, and for each of us to trust that this is in fact the case.

This vision shares the process of kingdoms rising and falling and God predicting exactly as they would rise and fall.

It is a direct fulfillment of the words of God from Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10.

The prophet Isaiah writing the words that God gave him.

Isaiah says these words, remember the former things long past.

I am God and there is no 1 like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done.

God is God because he knows the end from the beginning.

God is God because he can share with us those things from ancient times which have not been done.

In the 21st century we don't like exclusivity, But God is exclusive.

And while in Isaiah's time he was speaking to the false gods, the false gods of Baal and Asherah, and the various gods of Babylon, Marduk, and the sun gods.

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These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God Knows the End From the Beginning

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