1 In the 3rd year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first

A vision appeared unto me

It was communicated for the purpose of exhibiting certain important events in the future history of Judah, characterised by the suppression of their religious polity, the destruction of their commonwealth, and subversion of their power for a long series of years; but with

the consolatory assurance that God would avenge them, and by a great Deliverer

destroy the power that had so long oppressed them.

By studying the symbols of this chapter the power will be found to originate in Babylon, and be the same as that presented by the four beasts, but without the introduction of the ten horns and the little horn with its eyes and mouth."

Exposition of Daniel

2 And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.

Daniel saw a vision (chap. viii,) in which the following events are comprehended; the beginning and rise of the Persian empire, its overthrow by Alexander the Great, the partition of the Grecian empire, at that monarch's death, into four parts, and the appearance of the Roman power in the southern section of the divided empire, resulting in the death of Jesus, the disruption of the Jewish commonwealth, and the final casting down of the destroying enemy.

Christendom Astray

4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.

About three years after the vision of the Four Beasts the prophet saw another vision in which there were only two, namely, a Ram and He-goat. The former had two horns of unequal height, and "the higher came up last.'' In the twentieth verse we are informed that the horns represent the kings of Media and Persia." Hence the Ram symbolises the Medo-Persian power with its two dynasties which were not contemporary, but came up one after the other, the Median first, and then the Persian.

Having established itself, the Medo-Persians pushed their conquests westward towards Greece (Dan. 11:2), northward toward Armenia, and southward towards Egypt and Ethiopia; so that no powers could stand before them, nor was there any dominion strong enough to deliver the conquered nations from their yoke.

5 And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

Goat = Macedonian kingdom/ notable horn = Alexander the Great

Things continued thus about two centuries from the death of Belshazzar, when a power arose in the west which was represented to Daniel by a unicorn, that is, by a goat with one horn. This was the Macedonian kingdom; and the horn, its first king, or Alexander the Great. He is styled in the vision "a notable horn;" and in the prophecy "a mighty king, ruling

with great dominion, and doing, according to his will" (Dan. 11:3). The ram's dominion is represented by the silver part of the image, and the Goat's by the brazen, ''which bare rule over all the earth."

Aristotle

This world renowned philosopher of the fleshly order of wisdom, was a disciple of Plato, and flourished three hundred and thirty years or more before. Christ.

He was preceptor of Alexander surnamed "the Great"; and representative of the Notable Horn Power between the eyes of the Macedonian He-Goat, treated of in Dan. 8:5. Some idea of the estimation in which Aristotle was held by his contemporaries may be formed from the letter of Philip, king of Macedon, announcing to him the birth of his son Alexander.

"I am to inform you," said he, "that I have a son born. I return thanks to the gods, not so much for having given him to me, as for having given him me while Aristotle is living. I may justly promise myself, that you will make him a successor worthy of us both, and a king worthy of Macedonia."

Aristotle was the rival of "the divine Plato," and taught that

"Matter was eternal; that the world by powers natural to matter, has continued from all eternity the same as we see it, and that there exists nothing in the universe distinct from matter; that the present course of things, consisting of the motions of the heavens, and of the successive generations and corruptions of animals and vegetables, can neither be interrupted nor destroyed by any thing extraneous, but must be continued for ever. As for the Deity, if there were any, he taught that it is a nature happy in the contemplation of itself, and entirely regardless of human affairs."

The Scriptures were translated into Greek by the Seventy after his time.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Apr 1861

6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.

7 And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

War broke out between these two powers, which ended in the breaking off of the Ram's two horns; so that the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Ram, stretching from India to Ethiopia, were transferred to the Macedonian victor.

8 Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

Now, "when he stood up," or "was strong," "his kingdom," or ''great horn was broken, and instead of it came up four notable horns towards the four winds (wings) of heaven;" that is, "four kingdoms stood up out of the nation." ...the four heads of the Leopard, ... represent the same thing as the four horns. Of the horns, it is said, "they stood up not in his power," which is interpreted to signify, that the power of the kingdoms did not accrue ''to the first king's prosperity ; for his kingdom was plucked up for others beside them.

9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south [Egypt], and toward the east [Euphrates], and toward the pleasant land [Judea].

This Little Horn

This Ferro-Brazen, or Iron-and-Brass Power is introduced by the Spirit into the prophecy of the Ram and Rough-Goat in Dan. 8., as the Little Horn of the latter. This Little Horn represents that power known in history as that of the combined Italian and Greek; having Rome for its capital, and afterwards, Constantinople, originally styled Byzantium, and hence the origin of its designation as the Byzantine Empire.

This Greco-Italian Little Horn is introduced into this prophecy, because of the part it was destined to enact in relation to the cutting off of Messiah, the Prince of the host of Israel; the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple; the taking away of the Daily Sacrifice; the abolition of the Mosaic Commonwealth; the destruction of the Jewish power; and its still future contest with the Prince it crucified, for the possession of Jerusalem, and the Holy Land; when it shall be utterly broken upon the mountains of Israel, by the crucified Michael, without the possibility of recovery from its fatal and terrible defeat.

...In the prophetic interpretation of this, the Spirit's words are very analogous to those in Moses. Speaking of the time when this Iron Power should invade the Holy Land, to cause Judah to pass under "the yoke," the Spirit says, it should be in the latter time of the Greek kingdoms of Egypt and Syria. He styles the power

"a King of fierce countenance, and causing to understand an obscure speech; who he says, "shall stand up. And his power shall become strong, but not through his own prowess; and shall cause to destroy wonderfully; and he shall cause to prosper and execute, and to destroy multitudes, and the people of the Holy Ones.

And through his policy he shall cause fraud to prosper by his power; and in his heart he shall make himself great; and in prosperity shall cause to destroy many; and he shall stand up against the Prince of princes; but without hand he shall be broken to pieces."—8:23, 25.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Jun 1859

Christ's prophecy of the approach of the Roman arms, and his allusion to the reason of their permitted triumph (Matt. 24.; Luke 21.), furnish the finishing evidence of the identity of the little horn of the goat with the Roman power, whose outlined mission is not yet accomplished. It is nearly so but not quite.

Having destroyed Jerusalem a.d. 70, it "cast down the truth to the ground." It did this in two ways. First, under the Pagan Cæsars, it persecuted the witnesses of Christ's resurrection, and employed its power against all who received their testimony.

Secondly, when the Pagan form of Rome's Government was overthrown, when Christianity became nominally the religion of the State, it nullified New Testament Christianity by promulgating fables in its name, and persecuting and destroying to the ground all who opposed its corrupt doctrine, and contended for "the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ."

"Through policy it caused craft to prosper in its hand."

Religion became a craft of the most advantageous description, and through the corrupting influence of prosperous peace for all who conformed, it destroyed many; This power has "magnified himself in his heart." The city has come to arrogate the title, "The Eternal City."

Its living head claims to be the head over everything on earth that is worshipped, receiving and accepting the title, "Holy Father," which belongs to God alone.

This power has but to "stand up against the Prince of Princes," to completely fill the programme. This it will shortly do as revealed in the Apocalypse, where at the coming of Christ we see

"the kings of the earth and their armies (with the false prophet of Rome in their camp) gather together against him."

Although Russia is the head of the confederacy that receives its shattering blow in the Holy Land when Christ appears, we must not forget that Russia at that time is but the clay that holds the materials of the Roman feet together. The "kings of the earth" that oppose Christ are the "ten kings," and the ten kings are the Roman kings, the kings of the Roman earth as shown by the ten horns appearing on the head of the Roman dragon.

In their last essay, they are headed up under the pontifical power of Rome. Rome thus, in its last appearance on the stage,

"stands up against the Prince of Princes."

Sunday Morning 185

The power, which was new to the Asiatic, came from Europe west of Greece; and planting itself in Syria, north of Palestine, extended its dominion eastward, and southward, until it had absorbed within itself the power of all the Four Horns of the Goat.

The Little Horn power was that of a rude and uncultivated people inhabiting Italy; and known in the history of that country, as Etrurians, Umbrians, Ligurians,Sabines, Veientes, Latins, Aequi, and VoIscians.

About five hundred years after the foundation of ROME, Italy was subdued to the authority of this city of the seven mountains; and all these tribes came to bear indiscriminately the name of Romans.

After the subjugation of Italy, the Little Roman Horn proceeded to conquer all the nations round the Mediterranean. It subdued Greece about 146 years before Christ. In 67 before Christ, it appeared in Syria; and from thence "waxed exceedingly great, toward the south," and "toward the pleasant land," absorbing Palestine and Egypt; "and toward the east," to the Tigris and lands of Euphrates.

...Thus the Little Horn became an exceedingly great power. Its empire, which, seven hundred and thirty years before the birth of Jesus, was confined to the walls of a small city, in the second century of our era, was about two thousand miles in breadth, from the walls of Antonine and the northern limits of Dacia, to Mount Atlas and the tropic of Cancer; it extended in length more than three thousand miles from the Western Ocean to the Euphrates, and was supposed to contain 6,000,000 square miles. The number of subjects, who, either as citizens, provincials, or slaves, observed the rule of Rome, is estimated at 120,000,000.

Eureka 12.14.

Now, in the latter time of these four Macedonian kingdoms, a fifth power made its appearance among them, and subdued them all. This is represented in the vision by a Little Horn growing up out of one of the four horns; and in the prophecy, as "a king doing according to his will" (Dan.11:36). Though relatively small in its beginnings, this fifth power

"waxed exceeding great, toward the south, or Egypt: towards the east, or Euphrates; and toward the pleasant land of Canaan (Dan. 8:9).

The history of the kingdoms into which Alexander's dominion was broken, enables us to determine what fifth power is represented by the little horn of the goat, and upon which of the four horns it made its appearance in relation to the land of Israel, which is the arena of the latter time of the vision and prophecy. The Little Horn, then, is representative of the dragon's power in the East, that is, of the Roman; which was planted on the Assyro-Macedonian Horn B.C. 65, when it became a province of the dragon empire.

The Little Horn of Daniel's Fourth Beast.

—Among these Ten States, Daniel sees another arise, which he calls "a Little Horn." A State territorially small but ultimately wielding a power of a very remarkable kind, a Power distinguished by extraordinary intelligence and arrogant pretensions (symbolised by the Eyes and Mouth), a State before which three of the original Ten were uprooted to make room for it; a State which must be still in existence, because it is to endure to the End of Time, and be extinguished only by the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ on earth.

A Power distinguished by peculiar hostility to God's true people, and by utterances of such a character as will ultimately call down Judgment from Heaven upon it. We ask, then, is there anywhere in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean Sea a Power in existence which answers to all the characteristics here given? Again the answer of history is clear and emphatic.

In the very central part of the map of the Mediterranean there is situated a power which fulfils this description to the life. Its seat is the ancient capital of the Roman Empire, and it has been a kind of continuation of Roman Dominion in an altered form for the past twelve centuries at least."—C. B.

TC 08/1899

10 And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars [nobles] to the ground, and stamped upon them [for the Little Horn wielded all the power of the Goat].

It continued to wax exceeding great in these countries until it established its dominion over Syria, Palestine, part of Arabia, and Egypt. 

11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host [Yahoshua of Nazareth, the King of the Jews],, and by him the Daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary [Temple] was cast down.

Magnified himself

'... by crucifying "the Prince of the Host" ; destroying Jerusalem and the temple; sets up a god in Rome whom his fathers knew not; and ends by standing up against Michael, the Prince of princes, who brings him to his end, with none to help him (Dan. 9:26; 11:38; 13:25; 11:45; 12:1).

12 And an <army was appointed against the Daily because of sin>, and it cast down the Truth ["the form of the knowledge and of the truth in the Law"] to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.

We know from Daniel, that the Roman Dragonic Horn would magnify itself against the Prince of Judah's host, suppress the Daily Sacrifice, destroy the city and sanctuary, cast down the truth to the ground, and practice and prosper (viii. 11,12; ix. 26); -- all of which came to pass in the period before Domitian's assassination.

But, of the judicial visitation that should fall upon Roman society in the period the Roman government and people should be venting the ferocity so characteristic of them upon Messiah the Prince and "the people of the holy one," prophecy does not testify.

Eureka 6.1.2.2.

***

The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth verses, represent the part it [the Little Horn of the Assyro-Macedonian Horn of the Goat] was to enact in the overthrow of the Jewish state; and the twenty-fifth out lines its ecclesiastical policy, and its exaltation against the Prince of princes in "the last end of the indignation," when it "shall be broken without hand," that is, by the Stone of Israel when he smites the Image on the feet.

All the power of the dragon in relation to Israel and the land of promise is embodied in the Little Horn of the East. The smiting of the Image, the breaking of the Goat's little horn, and the binding of the dragon are synchronous and synonymous catastrophies; and "the stone," "the Prince of princes," "Messiah the prince," and "Michael the great prince who stands up for Israel," are but different titles by which the Lord Jesus is designated, who is to descend from heaven and fight the battle of God Almighty against them.

Such, then, was "the vision" which was understood by none. At the time it was revealed, Jerusalem and the temple were in ruins and Israel dispersed among the Gentiles.

13 Then I heard one saint [kadosh (angel)] speaking, and another saint [kadosh] said unto that certain saint [kadosh] [Heb Palmoni -the numberer of secrets, or, the wonderful numberer - KJV margin] which spake, How long shall be the vision [chazon] concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression [ peysha ] of desolation, to give both the sanctuary [Kodesh] and the host [tzva] to be trodden under foot?

which things the angels desire to look into - 1 Pet 1: 12

14 And he said unto me, Unto 2 300 [2 400 Sept.]days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed <justified>.

Unto 2400 days; then shall the holy (land) be cleansed - Elpis Israel 3.5

2400 [evening and the morning v 27] + 

From Alexander's conquests - The battle of Granicus BC 334-332 (seige of Gaza) + 2400 = Around 2068. Are the events of armageddon to unfold before this period -

"THUS shall they cleanse the land"

- in the 2401st year shall Israel begin cleansing the land (around 2068?) in preparation for the kingdom and age to come? And will acceptable daily sacrifices be offered from this point onwards (v13)?

And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. - Ezk 39: 12

or possibly

The Temple worship inaugurated with the first offering commencing the millenium...

THE EVENING AND MORNING PERIOD

How long would be the Daily (tamid) be taken away by the Little Horn of the Goat (Rome) and the holy city left desolate? Daniel wanted to know. Then would the sanctuary (holy) be avenged (cleansed A V). Thus is after 2 300, (better 2400) an evening and morning period.

"the sanctuary, or holy, shall be cleansed"

by the seven months burial of the slain in Hamon-Gog (Ezek. 39:11-16). To repeat the question, then,

"How long the vision (concerning the taking away of) the daily, and the treading down by that which maketh desolate, to give both the holy (land) and the host (of Israel) to be trodden under foot?" To this question it was replied,

"Unto 2400 days; then shall the holy (land) be cleansed."

We are not to understand by this, that the holy land would be cleansed in the 2401st year; but that the 2400 years being expired, the subsequent event to be brought about would be the cleansing of the land of Israel. This is a work that requires time, and cannot possibly be accomplished till after the battle of Armageddon.

I say that "the cleansing of the sanctuary" is the cleansing of the land of Israel; and I cannot conceive how any other interpretation can be put upon it in the face of Ezekiel's testimony short of this. He predicts the fighting of a great battle in the land of Israel "in the latter days," which is synonymous with "the time of the end." He describes it as taking place between the Lord God and a great northern power, which is signally defeated upon the mountains of Israel.

The heaps of slain are enormous; for it takes seven months to bury them, and seven years to use up their weapons as fire-wood for domestic purposes. ''Seven months," says Ezekiel,

"shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land."

Then describing the thorough manner in which the buriers shall do their work, so that not a single bone shall be left visible, he finishes this part of his prediction by saying,

"THUS shall they cleanse the land."

Elpis Israel 3.5.

A day for a year

1. -- The fitness of things.

When events affecting millions of people, and extending over vast geographical areas, are condensed into small symbolic objects, such as a ram, a horn, &c., it is necessary that the times be also condensed, so as to agree with the symbol that is the subject of the time.

2.—The scale of the events symbolized, as interpreted to the prophet, shows that the days were not literal days.

Thus the vision of the ram and the goat (Dan. 8.) is explained (5:20) to represent the career of the Persian and Grecian empires, and the political results ensuing on the dismemberment of Greece, including the development of the Roman empire, its destruction of the Jewish commonwealth, and the ultimate out-pouring of retribution on the adversaries of Israel.

Daniel is told, the vision shall be "for many days." In answer to the question, "How long shall be the vision, &c.?" the specific answer was communicated to him,

"Unto two thousand three hundred, (Septuagint—four hundred) days."

If this was a literal period, why was it expressed in days instead of the literal time—six years and seven months. No one, speaking literally, recognizes days except as fractions of a year. The absurdity of understanding this as literal days (less than seven years), is evident at a glance. The first event in the vision alone, viz., the development of the Persian empire, occupied two hundred years; the second, the career of Greece from the days of Alexander, other two hundred years, and the career of Rome to the downfall of Jerusalem, more than a hundred years more.

3.—The clues supplied in the Scriptures themselves.

Ezek. 4:5 shews that it is a divine method, when time has to symbolized, to use a day to represent a year. The prophecy of the seventy weeks (Dan. 9.) shows that this is the method adopted in the visions communicated to Daniel. The prophecy declared the appointment of 490 days to run from the issue of the Persian edict to "restore and build Jerusalem," to the appearance and death of the Messiah. Had literal days been intended, the Messiah must have appeared B.C. 452, or two years after the edict. But he was not "cut off" till 490 years after, which shows that though not expressed, seventy weeks (7 by 70–490 days) was intended to express a literal period of 490 years, on the principle of a day for a year.

To this, it has been objected that the "seventy weeks" are "seventy sevens," or hebdomads, simply, and not weeks, and may be seventy sevens of anything. That this is a mere device to get out of a difficulty, will be evident from the following considerations: The word translated "weeks" (shavooag) is the only word employed in Hebrew to express a literal week. The following are examples:—

"I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks; " "till three whole weeks be fulfilled."—(Dan. 10:2–3.) "Seven weeks shalt thou number," &c.—(Deut. 16:9.) It will also be found in the following: Gen. 29:27, 28; Exod. 34:22; Lev. 12:5; Numb. 28:26; Deut. 16:10; 2 Chron. 8:12; Jer. 5:24; Ezek. 45:21 (translated seven days).

In no other text is the word employed. It is never used to represent seven in the abstract. It is derived from the same root as the adjective numeral, shivgah, seven, because expressive of a period of seven days, but it is never employed to express the idea of seven in any other connection than that of the common week of seven days.

The Christadelphian July 1870

 "For an evening-morning of two thousand and three hundred, then the holy shall be avenged."

In Gen. 1:5, Moses says, "the evening and the morning were one day." Here then is one day of 2300. This is a long day. Is it a day of 2300 days, weeks, months, or years? When the answer was given, the Holy City was nothing but heaps of ruins, and the host of Israel scattered abroad. Now 2300 days are six years, three months, and twenty days; but the period could not be literal days, because from no date that can be selected with the least plausibility did the things predicted come to pass at their expiration.

The fulfilment belongs to the times of the Little Horn Power, and this did not appear in the Holy City until B.C. 63. No termination, therefore, before that event can be admitted. The only conclusion that can be arrived at is that it is a day of 2300 years.

This long day was to form an interval at the expiration of which means would be instituted for the vindication of the Holy from violence. The years have expired, and "the time of the end" has come in which the vindication is to be consummated. It is a day containing the first, second, and part of the third, days of Hosea 6:2, where the Spirit represents Israel as saying,

"AFTER two days will he revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight."

These are days of 1000 years each; of the third of which 586 years have passed away. Some time in the third day of a 1000 years the twelve tribes of Israel are to be the subject of a national resurrection.

But we come to understand that the 2300 is a period of years from the evidence afforded in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. These relate to the Holy and the Host, and the suppression of the Daily, as well as the 2300. The seventy are evidently weeks of years; for they are stated as beginning at the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, and ending at the cutting off of Messiah the Prince, which was exactly 490 years to a day; and containing seven seventy times.

Eureka 2.2.6.

16 And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.

Among the Elohal Sentinels of the kingdoms are Gabriel and Michael, "lords" and "princes" of the heavens. Gabriel was employed as a messenger of the Eternal Spirit, symbolised in Dan. 10:5-9, to give the prophet skill and understanding (8:15-18: 9:20-23).

He communicated to him the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, in which he fixed the time of the covenanting, or "cutting off, of Messiah the Prince"; and it was that same Gabriel (or Man of Power, as his name imports) who appeared to Zachariah, the priest of the course of Abia, and declared to him that his wife Elizabeth, one of the posterity of Aaron, should become the mother of John, who should

"go before Yahweh their Elohim,"

to prepare a people to receive him; and who also afterwards appeared to a virgin of the house of David, and informed her that she should become the mother of Yah Elohim, i.e., "He who shall be Mighty Ones" (Ps. 68:18), or as he is named in Jer. 23:6, Yahweh tzidkainu,

"He who shall be our righteousness";

or as the latter occurs in the Greek le-sous, which is a corruption of Yaho-shaia, contracted Yeshua. "He shall be salvation." "Thou, Mary, shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins"; in which Joseph, her husband, acquiesced.

Now when Gabriel appeared to the old people of Aaron's house, he said,

"I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of AIL"

-- the Supreme Power of the heavens. Upwards of five hundred and thirty years before, he appeared to Daniel with an answer to his supplication; and on that occasion told him that he had been sent with an answer to his supplications concerning the "desolations" of the Holy Land, and of "the city where Eloah's name was proclaimed"; and that he had come to show (for he was greatly beloved) that he might understand "the word," and comprehend "the vision" set forth before him at Shushan, the palace in Elam, by the river Ulai, as in chapter 8.

This seems to have ended Gabriel's mission to Daniel; for, after delivering to him the prophecy of the restoration of the City and Commonwealth from the Chaldean overthrow; and the subsequent appearance and CUTTING OFF, or covenanting of the guiltless Messiah; and the after-destruction of the City and Commonwealth again by the Romans, which was to be succeeded by a long desolation -- we read no more of Gabriel in the book.

But, though he disappears from the theatre of events till the nine months preceeding the birth of YAH ELOHIM, or Jesus, another Revelation appears to Daniel, as described in chapter 10.

Phanerosis - Angelic Supervision of World Events

17 So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.

This first vision John beheld is the same that Daniel saw; and the proximate condition of both seers in beholding it, was the same. Daniel, as well as John, became the subject of symbolical death and resurrection. He speaks of himself while entering, being in, and coming out of the death state, in these words, in chapter 8:17,18 saying,

"When the Appearance of a Man came near where I stood, I was afraid and fell upon my face ... and was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground ... but he touched me, and caused me to stand up upon my feet."

He is still more explicit in defining his condition analogous to death, in chapter x. 8, saying, "I was left alone," as the dead are when buried;

"and I saw this great vision; and there remained no strength in me; for my brightness was changed within me into corruption, and I retained no strength, ... neither was there breath left in me."

When a man is in a deep sleep prostrate upon the ground, destitute of strength and breath, his internal light extinguished, and corruption in the place thereof, he is dead. When, therefore, these things are affirmed of living men, as of Daniel and John, they are symbolically dead. Zechariah was in the same death state, and "was wakened out of his sleep" that he might behold the Seven-Branched Golden Lightstands, which, when burning with the Golden Oil, illuminate the earth with glory, after the resurrection of the dead (4:1).

These conditions, then, happened to these prophets that they might be testified; and that they might constitute boundary marks, by which the reader might know whether the visions recorded related to the times before or after the resurrection of the dead.

The Spirit-Man John saw said to him, after he had laid the power of his right hand upon him, by which he was brought out of the death-state, "I am living in the Aions," or thousand years, by which we are taught that the Spirit did not refer to any period of that duration before the resurrection, but to a course of a thousand years after that event, dramatized in John's person.

Eureka 1.5.3.

The Time of the End consists of the years occupied in justifying or vindicating all that constitutes "the holy" - rectifying, or making it all right and straight, after so long a period of injury and violence wenitzdak kodesh, "then the holy shall be justified" vindicated or avenged (Dan. 8:14).

The Eternal Spirit incorporate in the Saints, to whom judgment is given, is the justifier, rectifier, vindicator, and redeemer of the holy land and nation. Habakkuk, in his vision of this time, saith in Ch. 3:13,

"thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, for salvation with thine Anointed".

This Anointed One is the Christ in fullness - the One Body consisting of the Lord Jesus and his brethren "glorified together". Developed in the South as a a body of kings, laying special claim to the land of Israel, and to the world in general, and commencing their enterprise for the conquest of their rights from Teman, they constitute a power, styled in Dan. 11:40 melech hannegev, "king of the south". Zechariah says in ch. 9:14,

"Adonai Yahweh shall blow with trumpet, and shall go forth with whirlwinds of Teman".

He goes forth thence for the salvation of his people "in the time of the end". In going forth thus, he "pushes at him," the Little Horn of the Goat, or power of Constantinople, "which distributes the land for a price" (Dan. 11:39). It is immaterial whether that power be then Turko-Greek, or Russo-Greek: the raised up Sons of Zion, as the sword of a mighty man, will operate against the Sons of Greece (Zech. 9:13).

This sudden and unexpected attack of a hitherto unheard of power, will come upon the Dragon, the Beast, the False Prophet, the Kings of the Earth, and of the whole habitable "as a thief". The situation will be an astounding novelty in the "balance of power". The Christ in fullness in the Great City Babylon, and none suspecting even that the Lord Jesus had individually descended from heaven! Could any surprise be more complete!

Here then is the Eastern Question in a phase not dreamt of in the philosophy of the worshippers of the Beast.

Eureka 16.11.3.1.

18 Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright.

One purpose for which Christ came was to redeem the transgression of believers under the law. Daniel was assured that he should be raised from the dead. When all the prophets and the other righteous who lived previous to the manifestation of Christ in the world, shall be in the Kingdom of God, it will be as a consequence of resurrection.

And if you should be there with them, and ask them, "how came you here? you did not know anything about Jesus." "Oh" they will say,

"we believed the promises of God, made to the fathers,—covenanted to Abraham and to David. It is true we did not know who the person after the flesh would be, more than this, that we knew he would descend from David,—from the tribe of Judah; that he would be the sceptre that would be developed in connection with that tribe.

We believed the promises concerning the Christ, and, since the resurrection, we have learned that Jesus was the Christ, and that he was put to death to redeem the transgressions of (among others) the prophets and fathers which the law of Moses could not cover; so that we stand here by virtue of the manifestation of Jesus."

So that we perceive how Daniel and all the prophets, when in the Kingdom of God, will have been justified by belief of something, and that something was the promises to the fathers. Now, if you and I are to be honoured to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of God, we have to be justified through the faith which Jesus Christ brought. And you will observe that, whenever God gives additional information to a generation, all that and subsequent generations are required to believe that, in addition to what had been given to their predecessors. So that we now have presented to us "the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.

Those things are embraced in the phrase, "the faith, " while simply "faith," by which the prophets were justified, did not embrace the doctrines pertaining to the death of Jesus. But God redeems both those under the law, and those not under the law, by the death of His Son.

So you see the harmony of God's purpose. We Gentiles are the parties who fulfil the law when we walk after the spirit. So that you perceive the law was given to the Jews as a representation of future things. The sign, of course, indicates something signified. When, therefore, the Jews kept the law, they only kept it in the sign; but when we keep it, we keep it in the substance, which is of Christ. There are two principles, then; the circumcision were justified by faith; the uncircumcision by the faith.

Bro Thomas, 1869 - reproduced from Shorthand Notes

The Christadelphian, Jan 1888

Aions of the Aions

I have a translation of Dan. 8:18 before me which renders the time the Saints are to possess the kingdom by the formula, "for eternity, even for eternity of eternity." This, however, is a mere flourish, and no translation, and bears on the face of it proof that the inventor of the form knew nothing about the nature of the kingdom, nor the purpose for which it is to be established.

As I have shown, the kingdom is not to continue eternally; so that the Saints cannot hold it for eternity; and as the scripture is true, they do not use the word here in the sense of ever and eternity.

The duration of the Chaldee formula may be approximated from another direction. Thus, the kingdom the Saints are to take is the dominion of the lion, the bear, and the leopard, three of Daniel's four beasts. They are utterly to destroy the fourth, but the political organisations represented by the other three, are to be continued in existence, but without sovereignty.

While in existence, they are under the dominion of the Saints, whose administration will not be superseded by other rulers. The existence of these organisations subjectively to the Saints is defined; and consequently, the duration of their holding of the kingdom is thereby defined likewise. In ch. 7:12, it says,

"a prolonging in life was given the three beasts ad-z'man we-iddan, during an appointed time and a set time."

This, then, is the duration of the Olahm, or Ahlmah, of the kingdom -- a hidden period containing an appointed time and a set time. The Apocalypse has revealed the number of years contained in these kinds of time, in telling us how long the Saints are to reign with Christ after binding the Dragon; whose dominion at the appearing of Christ covers the territories of the polities symbolised by the three beasts.

They are to reign thenceforth with him during a thousand years (Apoc. 20:6). The period consists of "a set time," and "an appointed time." A set time is indicated by iddan, which is equivalent to the Hebrew moaid, the word used in Gen. 17:21, where it is said,

"Sarah shall bear unto thee Isaac, at this set time in the next year."

This is, then, a period of gestation, which consists of 280 days; a day for a year in symbolic time. This, deducted from 1,000, leaves 720 years for the "appointed time;" or two times of 360 years each. Daniel did not discern "what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in him did signify" by the z'man we-iddan, nor by the ahlmah of ahlmahs; but not so with ourselves, -- for the Father has apocalypsed the solution in the thousand years.

Eureka 1.3.4.

19 And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.

àDaniel being aware of this from the testimony of Jeremiah, made confession of sins, and supplicated the return of national prosperity. His prayer was heard, and "the man Gabriel," who had given him the interpretation of the symbols of the vision, was sent forth to "give him skill and understanding" of that part of the vision of the Ram and the Goat, which had reference to the subject of his prayer; and to communicate some additional particulars.

20 The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.

21 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

àThe Medo-Persian Bear, or Ram dynasty was made to give place to Daniel's third dominancy, symbolized by the four-winged and four-headed Leopard, the brass of the image, and the four-homed goat (Dan. 7:6; 2:32; 8:5-8).

These symbols represent "the old serpent" in the Era of the Greeks. Dominion was given to this people over the whole Dragon territory, which was enlarged towards the west.

But the power of the old serpent was not to remain in the form of the four heads of the leopard, and four horns of the Grecian goat.

The Greeks of "the whole earth," the sovereign race, were to yield the dominion given to them, to "A LITTLE HORN," or power; which, in relation to the Lion-Man territory of Daniel's first beast, which included the Holy Land, was to appear in the country of the Northern Horn of the Goat.

Eureka 12.14.

The Great horn - Alexander the Great

22 Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.

23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences [and causing to understand an obscure speech], shall stand up.

The King of Fierce Countenance

—The king (or kingdom) of Daniel (7:22) is the Little Horn of the goat of verses 9 to 12 [Daniel 8]; or, in other words, the power that came against Jerusalem, under Vespasian and Titus.

But as to the words, "he shall be broken without hand," that takes us forward to the time when the "Prince of princes" shall return, against whom he is to stand up, for the power was to prosper and practice until the time that the indignation against Israel shall cease in the overthrow of all her enemies by the power of

"the stone cut out of the mountain without hands,"

which shall break in pieces the combined Greek and Latin representative of Nebuchadnezzar's image, or, in other words, the Russo-Assyrian dominion of the latter days.

The Christadelphian, Apr 1889

THE KING AND THE "STRANGE GOD."

àThe 430 years of national retribution being ended, and with it the prophecy concerning Israel and the king of the northern horn of the Macedonian Goat, a new power is introduced as superseding that of the northern king. This power appeared on the territory of the north, and absorbed its dominion into itself, so that it became all in all.

In "the vision of the evening and the morning" it is represented by a Little Horn standing upon another horn, and is styled

"a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences."

Moses describes the same power in these words, saying to Israel,

"The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, and he shalt besiege thee in all thy gates" (Deut. 28:49,50,52).

"His power shall be mighty," said Gabriel, "but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy, also, he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand," or by his power: "and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and in prospering shall destroy many; he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes: but he shall be broken without hand." (Dan. 8:23-25).

This is a general description of the power which should rule over the Assyro-Macedonian territory as well as over the Greco-Egyptian, when "their kingdom should come to an end for a time, that is, until their revival "in the time of the end."

I am particularly desirous that this part of the prophecy should be understood. Perhaps, what I mean may be better comprehended by the following homely illustration.

Suppose we were to take a goat's horn, and with a circular saw were to cut out a piece of its surface. Then fix the round piece upon a spring, the lower end of which should be fixed inside the horn.

Now if pressure be applied on the circular piece it would be brought down to a level with the general surface of the horn. In this state, the horn would represent the Assyro-Macedonian kingdom under the Seleucidae; but remove the pressure and the circular piece of horn would start up to the height of the spring's length.

Let this represent the Little Horn upon the Goat's horn, and we have the symbol of the power which prevails from the conquest of Assyro-Macedonia, B.C. 65, until the time of the end, a period of 1934 years to the date of this book. But if pressure be afterwards applied to the circular piece, it is brought down to a level with the surface of the horn, and it again appears like one horn, for by the pressure the Little Horn is merged into it.

This last action and its result will represent the immergence of the Little Horn power of Constantinople into the Assyro-Macedonian, or Russian, Horn of the Goat in the time of the end; so that the Constantinopolitan, and Russo-Assyrian, powers, become one horn, as before the Little Horn arose.

So that in the time of the end the Horn of the North plays a similar part against Israel that it did of old by the hand of Antiochus Epiphanes in the days of Judas Maccabeus; therefore, he may be fairly taken as the type of Israel's last and greatest enemy, who shall come to his end, with none to help him.

Elpis Israel 3.4.

Great iron teeth of Rome the little horn of the goat

24 And his power shall <become> mighty, but not by his own power [ not through his own prowess]: and he shall [cause to] destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people [Holy Ones].

But why, it may be asked, has all this symbolography been introduced into the Bible? The answer is, to illustrate the relations of the Sin-power to "the holy people" (Dan. 8:24;12:7) in the eastern and western divisions of the Roman empire. By the holy people is meant the twelve tribes of Israel, and the two witnesses, including also the saints of the holy city

among the Gentiles. The Roman power, under its several constitutions, has been the destroyer of ''Judah and his companions," and the slayer of the christians, grafted into the stock of Israel, and of those associated with them for their defence against the Beast.

Elpis Israel 3.4.

The event that marks the end of the period is THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL, which is thus expressed,

"When he (Michael the Great Prince that liveth for the Aion) shall have finished the scattering of the power of the Holy People, all these times shall be finished."

Eureka 1.1.3.

25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft [ fraud] to prosper in his hand [by his power]; and he shall magnify himself [make himself great] in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but <without hand he shall be broken to pieces>

Through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper by his power

In studying the reign of Justinian this is remarkably apparent. But before the Horn could find scope for the promotion of the species of craft referred to, it was necessary, that he should "disregard all the gods of his fathers," that is, embrace some other religion than paganism; in other words, become a Greco-Roman catholic, such as Justinian, who occupied the throne, but did not inherit the peculiar superstition of the Caesars.

Having discarded the gods of his fathers, it suited the Horn's policy to bestow his patronage upon another, who should be a god upon the earth, and residing in Rome, instead of above the heights of Olympus. The testimony in Daniel is, that

"In his estate he shall honour the god of forces;"

or more intelligibly,

"In his kingdom shall he do honour to a god of guardians."

The word rendered "guardians" is mahuzzim and signifies munitions. Hence, any real, or supposed, persons adopted as protectors, guardians, or patrons, are mahuzzim, or munitions of strength and safety.

Now the god whom the Little Horn of the Goat honoured in his kingdom, was a god of guardian saints, who are regarded by his worshippers as protectors and towers of strength and security against all "the ills that flesh is heir to."

Such a god is the Bishop of Rome; who, to the pagan officials of the Little Horn, was unknown, being in their reign only a simple bishop, undistinguished front the rest of his class, save that he flourished in the capital, and they in the provinces, of the empire. He is therefore styled in the scripture,

"a god whom his (the Little Horn's) fathers knew not;" hence he is also termed "a strange god."

But though "strange" and unknown to Trajan and the Antonines, he was afterwards brought into notice by Constantine and his successors.

In 313, he was made chief magistrate of Rome, or, as we would say, Lord Mayor, for life. His jurisdiction was confined to the city. In 378, however, the Little Horn of the Goat then reigning over the east and west, extended his spiritual authority over all the churches of Italy and Gaul; and by the time of Justinian, he was prepared for presentation to the nations as spiritual head of the whole Roman habitable.

He was the god of a new system of idolatry, whose idols were the images of Mahuzzim, or "the ghosts" of pretended saints and martyrs, the demi-gods, or demons, of the new Roman mythology.

In a celebrated letter written by the emperor Justinian to this god of patron saints, dated March 533, and which thenceforth became part and parcel of the civil law, he is recognized as the legal head of all the churches of the eastern and western provinces of the empire. "We suffer not," says the imperial writer,

"any thing that belongs to the state of the churches to be done without submitting it to your holiness who art head of all the churches."

In this way

"the king who did according to his will acknowledged'' (Dan. 11:39)

this "strange god" as of supreme spiritual authority "in the most strong holds."

The work of recognition thus far advanced by Justinian was perfected by the edict of the emperor Phocas who began to reign in 603. He also wrote to the Roman Bishop in 604, and acknowledged his spiritual supremacy. He was very liberal to the churches, and allowed the Pantheon, a temple dedicated to all the gods by his fathers, to be turned into a church, or "most strong hold," to all the saints.

Phocas was a monster in crime, and therefore the better qualified for a patron of the Roman Bishop, who hailed him as the pious avenger of the church. By this kind of flattery a decree was obtained from him by Boniface Ill., in 606, declaring the Roman god UNIVERSAL BISHOP.

Two years after, a pillar with a gilt statue on the top of it, was erected in Rome to the honour of Phocas with the following inscription -- Pro innumerabilibus Pietatis ejus beneficiis, et pro quiete procurata, ac conservata libertate. Thus was memorialised the fulfilment of the sure word of prophecy, that the Little Horn of the Goat should

"in his kingdom do honour to a god of guardian saints."

Elpis Israel 3.4.

BY PEACE AND CRAFT WILL HE DESTROY MANY.

The peace overture we can see prior to the invasion of Ukraine. whereby the West disarmed after the collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1991.

This peace period is at an end now, and a time of war has come (Lk.21.25 . .Joel 3. Rev.11:18).

Craft is priestcraft which Vladimir Putin has promoted since he came to power. The Russian Orthodox Church and its clerical orders and churches is seen as a national means of uniting the Russian people and waging holy war.

The Apocalyptic Messenger, May 2023

26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.

àThe present tendency of Britain to insulation is then perfected; and her destiny is identified with the New [omnipotent] Power of the East. In this co-operation, she becomes

"the land shadowing wide with wings, extending from beyond to rivers of Cush" -

- the Tigris and Euphrates; whose shadow shall be as the night in the midst of the noonday, for the hiding of the outcasts in the land of Moab (Isa. xviii. 1; xvi. 3-5). At this epoch, the land becomes prosperous --

"a land of unwalled villages, whose inhabitants are at rest, and dwelling safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates. The desolate places of central Palestine are then inhabited, by a gathering out of the nations, which has become wealthy in cattle and goods" (Ezek. xxxviii. 8,11,12).

But this prosperity becomes an irresistible temptation to the king of the north to invade the land, and if possible to annex it to his dominion bordering upon it, by Hamath, Armenia, and Assyria.

"He will ascend like a storm, like a cloud to cover the land;" for "tidings out of the east, and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall pitch the tents of his entrenched camp between the seas," the Mediterranean and sea of Tiberias, which will extend "to the mountain of the glory of the holy" (Dan. xi. 44,45).

Thus all the nations of this northern confederacy are gathered by Yahweh against Jerusalem, after his descent to Sinai and before his own entrance into the city. He permits it to be taken, and rifled by the spoiler, and its inhabitants to be partly expelled and sent into exile (Zech. xiv. 2).

Their hope would now seem to be lost, and themselves finally cut off from their parts (Ezek. xxxvii. 11). They had, doubtless, thought that the long expected rest had been established beyond the possibility of disturbance. They were at rest in the midst of the land; but the whole house of Israel was not there; and the nations were not yet acquainted with the omnipotence of "the Kings of the Sun's risings."

The land being covered with the northern hosts as with a cloud, the Russo-Assyrian Gog is the lord ascendant of the country, with none to dispute his authority, but "Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon," south and east of the Dead Sea, and the river Arnon. In this region, his power is contested. "Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof," protest against the invasion of the land, but without effect.

Doubtless, he will feel too strong to be deterred from a grand solution of the Eastern Question in his own behalf. But "he shall be broken without hand:" the stone-power is near ready to fall upon him, and grind him to powder -- the power of the kingdom embodied in the rainbow organization (Matt. xxi. 44; Dan. ii. 45; viii. 25).

The northern Gog pays no respect to the young lions and merchants of Tarshish; but invades the country, and dominates it with an iron rule, as exemplified in the history of daemonial and idol worshipping Poland.

The fate of this province of the papal empire was a punishment due to them as worshippers of the beast and his image; but the people "dwelling in the midst of the land," in central Palestine, in peace and prosperity, belong to the Rainbowed Angel; and to invade and oppress them will not be tolerated: "for thus saith YAHWEH Tz'vaoth, after the glory," manifested in the land,

"hath he sent me unto the nations who spoiled you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye" (Zech. ii. 8).

At this crisis, then, of extreme peril to the Jewish population of Palestine -- of that "tenth" indicated in Isa. vi. 13 -- "the fury of Adonai YAHWEH comes up into his face" -- his eyes become as a flame of fire, and his countenance as the sun shining in his strength (Apoc. i. 14,16; x. 1).

He comes out of Egypt, as it is written, "Out of Egypt I called my son" (Hos. xi. 1). This was true of "Israel my son, my first born" (Exod. iv. 22), in the days of Moses; of the child Jesus, prophetically named Israel in Isa. xlix. 3, the Beloved Son of the Eternal Father, in the days of his infancy (Matt. ii. 15); and it is also true of Israel in Egypt, and of the Rainbowed Angelic Son of Man, the Yahweh Name, their King, in the day when Gog, in the latter-years manifestation of the Little Horn of the Goat, the King of fierce countenance, "shall stand up against the Prince of princes" (Dan. viii. 25). The Son of the Eternal Father in these several manifestations of Sonship, is called out of Egypt.

Eureka 10.6.

27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.

àThe prospect of a renewal of affliction was depressing to Daniel to a degree that made him ill—which shows the intensity of his affection for the things concerned: for a man is not affected in his appetite by the postponement of prospects in which he has only a mild interest.

The reflection suggested for our own comfort is this: here in the midst of great and busy Babylon, the man whom God favoured was a man who was deeply interested in the affairs of Jerusalem, which were of no moment to the crowds of people moving around him.

He was the only man out of millions whose views were wisely formed and placed—barring such as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Are there no Babylons to-day? Are there no Daniels to-day?

Are there not those who pray for the peace of Jerusalem in the midst of heedless communities of Gentiles? Who love her as David and Daniel loved her, though surrounded by the things dear to natural men? Whose hopes and hearts rise and fall with the waxing and waning signs of the Lord's returning favour?

... The affairs and prospects of Israel are esteemed the veriest rubbish by the people among whom we dwell. We are regarded as harmless lunatics for the interest we take in the history and futurity of Israel and their land.

Beware of yielding to the "consensus" of unenlightened feeling and opinion. We know in whom we have believed. It is not for the sake of the stones of which Jerusalem is built; it is not because of the geography of the land once the land of the Canaanites; it is not on account of the qualities of the stiff-necked race of Israel's sons, who

... it is not for any of these things that we feel our hearts glow with inexpressible anticipation when we turn our eyes to the desolations of Jerusalem. It is that God Himself has a purpose which He has disclosed, and that He has authenticated this purpose in an extensive and tangible manner by His wonderful works with Israel.

His resurrection of Christ, His apostolic invitation to the world, the existence, preservation and circulation of His Bible in the lands of the Gentiles, and the wonderful fulfilment of His prophetic word. Our confidence in the purpose is the confidence of reason that cannot be overthrown. It is a confidence that will be justified by the realization of all that we are looking for. The life of all men will end; the mightiest empire will pass away; the loftiest edifice of human power will crumble to the dust. But the purpose of God lives for ever. It cannot die.

Sunday Morning 174