Overview

This chapter needs a few reads to take it all in; our Abba Father packed it full. When I was ready to submit my manuscript to the publisher, I prayed on it and asked if it was finished. The voice I hear often comes into my head with, “you need more Daniel.” So I looked again, and the reveal amazed me. The result was this sub-section of the book, and it lit up my flock. Daniel and the Revelation of Jesus Christ are about the end time, but Daniel shows us much about our Abba Father controlling the world including modern times before we get to the end. Jesus said that not even he knew the “when,” so the “when” cannot be in the Scripture. Forget about the “when” and focus on being ready because our time is near no matter when Jesus returns.

I have zero interest in the “when” of the end. Our Abba Father planned this life for us and told us to glorify him in it. Our goal here is to grow our faith for that purpose, not solve puzzles. The Revelation of Jesus Christ was given to John to inspire believers to live in faith in their time and, therefore, for us in our time to live in faith until the generation that sees Jesus come to get us. If we see and live our lives in a relationship with our Abba Father, we will always be ready. In every other model, we need to prepare and be ready as a chore on our to-do list, or like many, just ignore the end in ELB.

Either Jesus comes today, or he doesn’t; my life does not change until he comes, and then it is too late if we are not ready. Mathew 24:42-44, “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.“

There is an end to this world mess, and a perfect replacement will follow; that is good to know. But the end is the final battle, not the war. I repeat that the end is the final battle, not the war. We are at war with the enemy every day, and God’s children have been in the war since creation. Our first job is to be ready today, and the second is to help others get ready. And here is the key, our Abba Father designed it to be a labor of love! We know we win. So why don’t we act that way?

A key element of traditional teaching is that Daniel’s prophecies all happened before 70 AD and the destruction of Jerusalem except the Great Tribulation at the end. By the time we finish, we will understand that this world delivers tribulation continuously, our Abba Father’s heavenly realm is integral to it, and our USA, “one nation under God,” is a very special place. I always wondered how the two books we need the most to know how it all ends, Daniel and the Revelation, could only be understood once it is too late. Yes, there are mysteries in the Scripture but not two whole books worth. That makes no sense; there has to be a better interpretation.

The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century launched a new era of prophecy interpretation, after which anyone could publish their thinking. There are now five distinct theories of Daniel’s and Revelation’s prophecies. I even get to write a book! I do not mention the five theories because we can read the Scripture ourselves and see what it tells us. We do not need the old views; it is time to start over.

The Reformation leaders did not have the future events needed to interpret Daniel’s prophecies. What is overlooked in interpretation today is that Napoleon’s conquest of Rome in 1798 ended the Holy Roman Empire and freed the Vatican. Then the American and French revolutions completely changed the governance of the world. That history opened new possibilities for prophecy that fit better than any older theory and it is hard to understand why the church refuses to even look.

One feature of “engineering thought” is that when something isn’t working, we throw it out and start over, and it is time to throw out the five traditional end-time theories and start over with a fresh look. That fuels my look at Daniel. But remember, I could be crazy. Another event to consider is the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran Caves, and the library at Ugarit in the mid-twentieth century. Those documents clarified the ancient Scripture and culture, especially about the supernatural world.

So why get excited about either prophetic book? (S1M2 explained “why” to get excited.) We believe Jesus is coming back someday; he is our savior; we are good to go. Right? To avoid the fiery pit, probably. To have a meaningful life, not a chance. We are in a new era on our Abba Father’s timeline. When we ignore his work in modern times, we miss out on an enormous faith builder. ELB does not want this view to be known.

Daniel 12:4 sets the stage for all of Daniel, “Now you Daniel seal up the words and seal the scroll until the end of the age, they shall run around and knowledge shall increase.” I believe we have been “running around” for quite a while, and knowledge has increased, especially in Daniel and the Revelation context. As history unfolds, we get new information and must test the prophecies. Revelation 11:10. “And they say unto me, Thou must prophesy again over many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” The angel just opened Daniel’s sealed scroll which connects Daniel and the revelation.

Daniel brings our Abba Father into our lives today in an amazing way because we see him working in modern times. There is something magical about Daniel in bringing me closer to our Abba Father. It is similar to David’s Psalms revealing his inner thoughts. Daniel reveals our Abba Father’s inner thoughts. Daniel presents an overview of the time after Jesus’ work on the cross, the world we know in great detail through history.

The Old Testament tells us what our Abba Father is thinking throughout, but it feels like we are left to fend for ourselves after John, living in our Abba Father’s promises. That is ELB in preaching. We miss our Abba Father working in modern times because he had Daniel write about, the same as with the Intertestamental Period. ELB does not want us to know this because it will strengthen our relationship and faith. We are taking a deep dive into Daniel rarely presented to believers. I expect you will love it, but agree or disagree with the conclusions, your faith will grow.

This journey through Daniel’s prophecies and connection to The Revolution of Jesus Christ directly conflicts with much of the conventional ELB interpretation. That interpretation leaves a void of Scripture from 70 AD until the “time of the end,” meaning we are just floating in time wondering, and most prophecies become meaningless to us. The entire ELB interpretations depend on two opinions I believe are wrong and theological malpractice. You deserve a chance to see for yourself. Too many believers in ELB are spectators of the Scripture, watching the players do their thing and maybe pass a quiz on a Holy Bible study. Daniel’s actual life is a metaphor for how we are supposed to live in relationship to our Abba Father. His life is without blemish. Please read the entire chapter in your Holy Bible as we go through each one. The lessons about Daniel himself are clear and left to the reader. But be sure to see them as lessons about our faith, not his history.

Daniel 1

Daniel opens with the beginning of our Abba Father’s punishment of Israel, which included young Daniel. Daniel 1:1-2, “It was the third year in the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came besieging Jerusalem. And my LORD gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the furnishings of the house of our God, he went bringing them to the land of Shinar into the house of his god and the vessels he brought to the house of treasury of his god.”

Please notice, “And the LORD gave . . .” Judah to Babylon. We are witnessing our Abba Father “controlling” his creations to achieve his plan. The spirit enemy actions manifest a negative outcome with humans, similar to what we see in Job. If “And the LORD gave . . .” should resonate with you, please pray on that. It is similar to our Abba Father hardening the Pharoah’s heart in Exodus after the sixth, eighth, and ninth plagues. Exodus 9:12, “And the LORD made the heart of Pharaoh stubborn and he did not listen to them, just as which the LORD spoke to Moses. (Moses and Aaron) . . .”

Daniel has nothing to do with our redemption. He boosts our relationship with our Abba Father, which grows our faith as we grow our understanding. Our Abba Father uses earth Babylon to punish earth Israel, working through his created families. Daniel confirms in later chapters that our Abba Father continued working after Jesus ascended. You will see “spirit Babylon” and “spirit Israel” which most scholars omit in their interpretation. By the end of the book, you will see the full magnificence of our Abba Father’s plan and its implementation.

We must look at the physical and the spirit parallel we spoke of previously to know our Abba Father’s creations. We see the attacks on Jerusalem by Babylon with others to follow, which become metaphors for the enemy attacks on “spirit Jerusalem” by the “spirit Babylon.” That is the key to interpreting Daniel. We will emphasize that until it is part of our everyday life.

Physical Jerusalem is where our Abba Father settled to be with his people on earth. Spirit Jerusalem is where we go in the end. Look at Hebrews 9:22-24, “And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into Heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us.” We will actually see this happen in Daniel 7.

Our citizenship is in Heaven, and our spirit connection to Christ through the Holy Spirit makes the enemy’s attacks on believers also an attack on the heavenly body, spirit Israel. To illustrate, let’s look at Acts 9:3-4, “And as he journeyed, it came to pass that he drew nigh unto Damascus: and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven: and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”

Saul was persecuting Jesus in Heaven through us on earth. Please pray on that. Our life is not just us humans down here; there is a spirit realm around us that ELB wants us to ignore, which means we also ignore our relationship, our citizenship in Heaven now, and the enemy. That will take some getting used to, but it will change your life.