CHAPTER
FIVE
 

"Has anybody here seen my old friends..."
 

Daniel, Matthew, and John
 

 
 
 
 

"Fits Like a Glove"

    A number of years ago, there was a popular song called "Abraham, Martin, and John." It was a folk eulogy to the fallen heroes of the 1960s sung by pop star Dion. In terms of prophetic study, there are three witnesses that stand out: the visions given to Daniel, the words of Jesus as recorded by Matthew, and Revelation shown to John. In particular, Daniel chapter nine, Matthew chapter twenty four (with parallel passages), and various sections of the Book of Revelation represent the focus of prophetic study.

    The Old Testament prophet Daniel was taken as a young man into the Babylonian captivity. He witnessed the destruction of his nation, the temple cults, and everything he held dear. He was well educated and came from a prominent family but ended up as a slave in a foreign land as the prophets before him predicted. One of these prophets was Jeremiah. Daniel studied the prophetic scripture and was rewarded with an understanding of the literal meaning of Jeremiah's prophesy concerning the time of Babylonian captivity and return to the land.

"In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years which, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years." (Dan. 9:2 RSV)

"This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity. . ." (Jer. 25:11-12 RSV)

    God sent an angel, Gabriel, to reveal to Daniel His timetable for the end times. Daniel had a little and God gave him much (Mat. 25:21). There must have been others in the captivity who read the scriptures, since synagogues were created while in Babylon, but it is recorded that only Daniel was chosen to understand the times in which they found themselves. The fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophesy is found in Nehemiah chapter two, an event which occurred and was recorded many years after Daniel's angelic visitation.

    In Daniel 9:24-27, we find the timetable which the angel gave to the prophet to show forth God's plan until the culmination of secular world history:

"While I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He came and he said to me, "O Daniel, I have now come out to give you wisdom and understanding. At the beginning of your supplications a word went forth, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the word and understand the vision.

"Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood
 
 

and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator." (Dan. 9:21-27 RSV emphasis mine).

    Daniel did not understand the meaning of this vision, but it is plain now. From the time of the declaration to allow the Hebrew people to go back to the land found in Nehemiah chapter two until the Messiah would be "cut off", an expression meaning to be killed, would be 69 weeks of years or 483 years of prophetic time. We know from history that Jesus was crucified at approximately the time indicated by this prophetic scheme. The prince who was to come was Titus the Roman General who laid siege to Jerusalem, the son of emperor Vespasian. The original scriptures did not have chapters and verse divisions; these were put in centuries later. I believe that the text contains a divisional interlude in the middle of verse 26. A period and the beginning of a new paragraph of prophetic thought should begin at the comma as it commonly exists in most translations. It should read, "Its end shall come with a flood!", a statement concerning the sudden and utter destruction which occurred on the ninth of Av when the Roman army overran the city.

    The next paragraph should begin "And to the end there shall be . . ." which is transitional and indicative of the birth pangs leading up to the final prophetic week of secular history indicated in verse 27. The Greek term "kai" which is used here often marks the beginning of a sentence (see UBS dictionary). As we shall see later on, this also lines up with the exposition of Jesus on the Mount of Olives as recorded in Matthew - in the mouth of at least two witnesses.

How long is this interlude between the destruction of Jerusalem and the final seven year period that fulfills the prophecy? Since the events of the final seven week period, Hebrew Shabua = a heptad, or seven year period (cf. Gen. 29, the story of Jacob serving Laban for 7 year periods), have not yet occurred since 70 AD, we logically must conclude that we are still in the interlude period now. When will the final seven year period begin? We must look for a strong covenant which "he" who is the "prince who is to come" shall make with Daniel's people, the Jewish nation. This "prince" will come out of the people who destroyed the temple and Jerusalem, the territory of the old Roman Empire. The prophecy plainly states this. This does not necessarily imply that he is of Roman heritage nor even a gentile. This figure, the Antichrist as he is commonly known, is the focus of the rest of Daniel's book.

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    The last book of the Holy Canon is the Apocalypse (which means to reveal or uncover that which was previously hidden). This is the revealing of Jesus Christ as presented to St. John, called the book of Revelation. It is also the revealing of the mystery which escaped the prophets. Daniel was told to seal up what he had seen until the end of time:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. . .

And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand." (Dan. 12:4,9-10).

    In our day, knowledge doubles every 2.5 years, and communications and transportation have exponentially exploded. This has never happened before in all recorded history. Daniel is told that at the end, the wise would understand. We are nearing the end, but who are the wise? The beginning of wisdom is the reverence and respect for the creator.

    The parallels between the passages and the book of Revelation are so astounding that some liberal scholars have concluded that John was a plagiarizer. Was Daniel given a vision and then told to seal up what he saw but St. John was taken to heaven and then told to write what he saw? The answer seems obvious, "for the time is at hand" (Rev. 1:3).
 
 

    In the Gospel of John chapter 21, a very strange conversation is recorded revolving around Peter's fate and Jesus' reference to the future of the beloved disciple John:

"Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. en went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true." (John 21:21-24 KJV).

    Jesus may have been referring to John's future work and the book of Revelation which he would write down. John, the last living disciple and the only one to see old age [reference Foxes Book of Martyrs Ch.1 pp.7-14], actually witnessed the second coming of Christ in a vision and thus lived to see the return of the Lord. Jesus was not flippant in reply to Peter's inquiry nor were these idle words of speculation aimed at appeasing an emotionally crippled Christian leader. The angel was sent specifically to John by Christ to show him the events surrounding the second coming as indicated by His remarks at a fish fry on the shore of Galilee a lifetime earlier. Scholars who emphatically state that Revelation's John was not the beloved disciple of Christ simply overlook the obvious. The truth is always simple, the understanding childlike. Jesus was telling each disciple in His own way about the fate that awaited them. Church history verifies this truth.

    In Daniel's vision of the last seven years of history (Dan. 9:27), there is a division in the middle of the prophetic week, "in the midst of the week" or 3.5 years into the prophetic week, there is a key event which characterizes the following 3.5 years - seven years all together. By Divine coincidence, the Revelation is divided into this precise grouping. In some places it is expressed in terms of days (11:3, 12:6), and in others in months (11:2, 13:5), but always adding up to one shabua, one seven year period of prophetic future history. The divisional references in Revelation occur in the chapters that correspond to the middle of the seven year period, the events surrounding the middle of the tribulation - chapters 11, 12, and 13.
 
 

* note: the numbers are not important in themselves, but the realization that the scripture accurately attests to the truth of a unified interpretation. One Lord, one scripture, and one prophetic truth.

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    In Matthew chapter twenty four, Jesus ties the Book of Daniel and Revelation together (of course the Revelation had not yet been given at the time of the Olivet Discourse). Many scholars apparently fail to realize that Jesus interprets the Daniel chapter nine passage for us. If Daniel was written by others at a much later date, as some scholars conclude, it would mean that Jesus himself was taken in by the deception and as such was Himself an impostor, which we know is not the case.

    Jesus makes the same shabua divisions and places the key event, the crux interpretem, in the middle of the prophetic week just like Daniel. Since He is the true author of Daniel and Revelation (Daniel and John were "holy" ghostwriters), this should not come as a big surprise. All prophesy is an interwoven end-time tapestry whose panorama is revealed to the one who has eyes to see.

    Matthew chapter 24, the Olivet Discourse, revolves around the questions asked by the Disciples and the answers given by the Lord. Christ had just walked through the temple area on His way to the Mount of Olives commenting on the impending doom of this magnificent edifice. His disciples could not grasp the import of His commentary, let alone realize that He was soon to be killed. Jesus delivered a scathing denunciation of the superficial religion represented by the Pharisees and Sadducees (the very group who would hand Him over to Pilot).

    The hand-picked band of followers could not grasp the meaning of the Lord's statement, "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Mat. 24:2 KJV). He was prophesying the means of the Temple's destruction some 40 years later when Titus and the Roman Legion would literally burn the Temple with fire and cast the stones down to scrap off the melted gold (which had dripped between the cracks and resolidified). Jesus had already addressed the timing of the destruction of the Temple, "All these things shall come upon this generation . . . your house is left unto you desolate . . . there shall not be left here one stone upon another" (Mat. 23:36-24:2 strung together in context without artificial chapter division). During the lifetime of the disciple's generation, the Temple would be destroyed, but it would be a future generation that would see His return.

    The questions asked by the disciples concerned the timing of the Temple's destruction which would be the end of the world as they perceived it. However, Jesus proceeded to give the answer to the greater question concerning His Second Coming, What is the sign of the end? Jesus said that the contemporary generation would be give only one sign, the sign of Jonah - His death, burial, and resurrection. The final generation would also be given an undeniable sign, the Parousia (Rev. 19, Physical and Visible return, cf. Acts 1:11). The Lord communicated the plan of secular history from that day until His return, giving definite chronological divisions punctuated with a parable to unlock this mystery. It is interesting to note that in every other instance, Jesus explained his ideas to the disciples while speaking to the masses in parables, but this time He gave this parable to the Twelve. Why? This information was to remain a mystery to His close circle.

Matthew Chapter 24 is separated into chronological sections divided by the key word "Then," which is the Greek term tote^a:

A. The Disciples Questions:

3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, a)Tell us, when shall these things be? and b) what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?

[Commentary: They asked about a)chronology and b)the primary sign of His Coming]

B. The Answer:

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

[Commentary: Pre-Tribulation signs = false religions, wars, famines, plagues, and earthquakes]

[Commentary: All the signs mentioned to this point are birth pangs - characteristics leading to the Tribulation, events occurring in increasing frequency from the First Coming until the Rapture]

9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

[Commentary: "Then" introduces this section, the Beginning of the Seven Year Tribulation
"you" is not referring to his 12 disciples, but to the Tribulation believers]

11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

[Commentary: This is referring to the Antichrist and his False Prophet]

13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

[Commentary: The believer who endures in his mortal body until the end of the Tribulation will be saved from physical death and inherit the Millennial Kingdom]

[Commentary: The "end" referred to here is the Second Coming at the Battle of Armageddon]

15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

[Commentary: This Mid-Trib event is the "key" which ties Daniel and Revelation with Matthew 24]

[Commentary: This "Then" introduces the next section, Mid-Trib. The "When" of v.15 goes with this, i.e. "When . . . you see . .  Then . . . flee]

18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day:

21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

[Commentary: This has never occurred in history by the definition Christ gives here, italics mine]

[Commentary: If the Lord had not shortened or limited this time to 1260 days - extinction!]

24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

25 Behold, I have told you before.

26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

[Commentary: The Parousia, the Return of Christ, will be visible to the entire world]

[Commentary: This is a reference to the armies assembled at Armageddon which will be destroyed and eaten by the vultures, "eagles" = aetos should be translated as vultures (cf. Rev. 19:17, Isa. 66:24]

29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

[Commentary: This is the unmistakeable sign the disciples requested (cf. Zech. 12:10)]

[Commentary: This is the Last Trumpet of the Tribulation - not the Last Trumpet for the Church (see Reason #8 section in Chapter Seven of this work]

32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

    The major divisions of His answer are found in verses 4,9,15, 21, and 29. Verses 4-8 deal with the "birth pangs," which are the increasingly severe tribulations, i.e. difficult times, that the world must go through before the final shabua of world history. These ever-increasing contractions are represented by false religions, natural disasters, and war (sounds like the nightly news!). These signs have always existed, but the increasing severity over time is indicative of His arrival, like the timing of birth pangs before delivery.
 
 

    Verses 9 onward begins the Tribulation with a capital "T", the seven year period spoken of by Daniel (9:24-27). This is the time when God's people remaining on the earth will be "afflicted" (KJV); the Greek word means to endure tribulation. This is characterized as a time when false religion flourishes and hatred is aimed at the godly, like the time of Noah.

    Verse 16 begins with the divisional indicator "Then" but must be interpreted as one thought with the preceding verse 15, i.e. "15 When you see . . 16 Then . . . ", keeping in mind that there were no verse enumerations in the original manuscript. Verses 15 is the "crux interpretem", the key which correlates this discourse as related to the books of Revelation and Daniel. Jesus gives the key event mentioned by Daniel in 9:27 and indicated by association in Revelation chapters 11-13. The key event is the "Abomination of Desolation" (the abomination that makes desolate). This is an unmistakable future occurrence which takes place in a moment of time. This is like the historical incident that started the Maccabean Revolt when the Greek ruler, Antiochus Epiphanies, desecrated the Temple and set up pagan gods in place of YAHWEH, the God of Israel. That event some 200 years before this Discourse was a type of the distant future event described by Daniel (notice Jesus does not reference the desecration of Antiochus, a well known historical fact at the time, with the end times). The events which follow verse 15, taken as a whole, have never occurred in history.
 
 

    Verse 21 begins the Great Tribulation, the last 3.5 years of the final shabua of judgment, "For then shall there be great tribulation." The "For" preceding what has been an introductory "Then" is used for emphasis to dramatize the severe change in prophetic import, a quantum leap in terms of divine judgment upon the earth. Least some future biblical scholar mistakenly associate this with an ancient historical record, Christ lets us know that this time period will be like no other (even to those events surrounding 70 AD and the later Jewish rebellions against Rome) and there can be no comparison to the evolution of phenomena observed in the earlier verses. In verse 22, He lets us know that the conditions will be so extreme than the days have to be "shortened" or cut down to a limited number so that mankind will not become extinct. False religion will rise to its zenith, but the true believers will not be seduced - it is impossible.

    Jesus continues on to warn against speculations about the Parousia, His visible Return which will be witnessed by entire earth. A hint is given which aligns the timing of His Second Coming with the overall prophetic Word, "where the decaying mass is located the vultures will be assembled" (paraphrased). The Greek word translated as "eagle" in many versions can also be rendered as birds which devour dead flesh. This correlates to the Battle of Armageddon found in Revelation chapter 19:17-18 (cf. Dan. 11:45) when Christ returns and destroys the armies of the world and they are eaten as carrion by the scavengers of the air.
 
 

    Verse 29 introduces the end of the Tribulation period, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days" which follows directly as a result of Christ's decisive victory. There will be horrific cosmic anomalies at that time the Sign of His Appearing, the heavenly vision depicted in Revelation 19:11-16 of Jesus riding as the Commander and Chief of the saintly army of heaven, "then shall appear the sign . . . they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Mat. 24:30 KJV). Jesus finally answers the disciples question, "what shall be the sign of thy coming" (v. 3). Zechariah prophesies that this will be the time when the Jewish nation will receive the one whom they crucified (Zech. 12:10).

    "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place." (Mat 24:32-34 RSV)
 
 
 

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^a Several times in the passage, Jesus uses the phrase "and then", kai tote (vv. 10,30), but this has the meanings of adding to the major topic introduced by the initial "Then" that introduces a major chronological division [ Return ]