Daniel 8:13-27 - The final pope



God's Covenant with Abram's seed went from Isaac to Jesus. Alexander said he was a god. That spirit is in the church.

First published on the 2nd of March 2019 — Last updated on the 6th of December 2023

God’s Covenant with Abraham involved his seed or son Isaac.

Abraham was promised a son who would be born 25 years later. So the birth of Isaac can be regarded as the coming of the natural promised son. This is symbolic of the coming of the spiritual promised Son of Abraham, Jesus Christ.

But Jesus is always doing the impossible that no other man could do.

So Jesus has more than one Coming.

His first Coming was to die for His people at Calvary.

His second Coming, which is a great secret, removes the Bride from the earth.

Before He reaches the ground He secretly catches up His Bride, the true church, to meet Him in the air.

He takes the Bride to Heaven for the Wedding Supper.

This triggers the final events. The world goes into the great Tribulation as the two prophets Moses and Elijah take the Gospel back to the Jews.

Jesus leaves the Bride in Heaven as He returns back to earth secretly to save the 144000 from destruction by the final beast Pope and his huge international host of vicious killers. This power convinces the 144000 that Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus returns to Heaven and the two prophets and the 144000 are killed. But they are resurrected up to protect the Bride when Jesus and the Bride return to earth for the battle of Armageddon. This is the third Coming of Jesus to destroy the antichrist host.

So from the Jewish point of view, their history seems to stop at Calvary with the death of the promised Son as they reject the Gospel. There is then a gap for almost 2000 years of persecuted exile before they are finally restored to their Promised Land. The church or Bride leaves at the second Coming or so-called Rapture and the Tribulation starts. Jewish history then suddenly starts again. For the next 3½ years, they slowly accept the Gospel during the Tribulation. In the end the enemy is destroyed in a bloodbath called Armageddon.

God’s covenant with Abraham refers to his promised son Isaac.

Thus the Jewish nation can only start when Isaac is born as the seed of Abraham. If Abraham had no son, his covenant with God would have been meaningless after the death of Abraham.

So with the birth of Isaac, the Jewish nation began its long history.

This was the nation that God chose to bring forth the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The Coming of the spiritual Seed of Abraham, Jesus, is more complex as it involves more than one Coming. Jesus came the first time as Messiah and was rejected and killed.

The Jews miss His second Coming when He Raptures the church but the Jews re-enter the plan of God during the Tribulation and the survivors rejoice at the end of the Tribulation.

The Third Coming of Jesus at Armageddon completes the Tribulation.

One Bible verse can mention both the first Coming as well as the Tribulation which occurs 2000 years later. Both of these events involve the Jews.

ISAIAH 61:1   The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

:2     To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

The first Coming of Jesus was to heal and to help and offer freedom to the Jews who were in bondage to the man-made legal rules of the rabbis, Pharisees, synagogues, and Sadducees that never were a part of the Law of Moses.

But the acceptable year of the ministry of His first Coming is linked to the day of vengeance which is the great Tribulation that ends in Armageddon. This occurs just after His second Coming which will catch up the true church to Heaven.

When Jesus fulfilled this prophecy, during His First Coming, He left out the second half of the verse.

LUKE 4:19    To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

No mention of the day of vengeance.

LUKE 4:21   And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

This is a key point.

A single verse can refer to two events separated by 2000 years.

Jesus knew exactly which half of the verse applied to His First Coming. He thus ignored the second half of the verse as that would only happen many centuries later. But God sees a day as a thousand years, so in God's eyes, the two events are separated by only two days. Thus referring to them in the same verse is no problem.

II PETER 3:8   But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

As another example of a single verse referring to events separated by 2000 years:

MALACHI 4:5   Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

:6   And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,

and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

John the Baptist only fulfilled half of this.  Elias is the Greek for Elijah.

The angel said to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist.

LUKE 1:17   And he (John) shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias,

to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,

and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

The disobedient Jewish fathers who kept the Law had to turn to the Gospel wisdom of their just children, Jesus and the disciples, in order to find the truth.

The disciples who started as children grew up as Jesus trained them to become the fathers of the early church.

“The great and dreadful day of the Lord” is the Tribulation. The “curse” is the lingering radioactivity from nuclear explosions that devastate the earth in the Tribulation.

II PETER 3:12    Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

A very accurate description of incoming nuclear missiles and bombs exploding high up above their targets.

The first atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima was at a height of about 600 metres. It was a blinding fireball that melted and evaporated everything below it.

To maximize their destructive capacity, nuclear bombs explode a few hundred metres up in the air or atmosphere. The atmosphere that can be freezing cold, baking hot, full of smoke from wildfires, polluted by cities and industries, calm and beautiful, threatening with thunderstorms, hail, and cyclones, depending on where you happen to be, can be referred to as the natural heavens. (God and the angels dwell in the higher dimension of the unseen spiritual heaven).

Before this awful Tribulation and its nuclear holocaust happen, we are promised an end-time prophet to turn us as Christian children back to the beliefs of the apostolic fathers of the early church. The only candidate for that ministry was the American preacher William Branham.

So this one verse, Malachi 4: 6,  describes two events separated by almost 2000 years.

Let us go back to the call of Abraham (then known as Abram) which was more than 2000 years before Christ.

GENESIS 12:1   Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

:2     And I will make of thee a great nation,

When God called Abraham He put the emphasis on the Jewish nation that was the seed of Abraham.

The emphasis was not just on Abraham but also on his son or seed from whom a nation would come.

GENESIS 12:7   And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:

So Abraham was promised a son by God. And the seed of Abraham was promised a land. Israel.

If Abraham had no son then no nation could come from him.

Thus that covenant only became effective when Isaac was born in the flesh, about 25 years later.

The covenant involved a small Promised Land (less than 1% of the land surface of the earth). Later the imperfect Temple sacrifices in terms of the Law of Moses would follow, but that failed to make people better. The Law chained people to the impossible task of achieving salvation through good works. The Jews became absorbed with self and wealth.

The promised son, Isaac.  The promised land, Israel. The emphasis was on the promises of God.

So in the Law, there was also a promise of a better covenant of which the Law was just an outline or shadow. The Law was just a temporary foundation. The Temple was a magnificent building that would be destroyed twice.

How long was this natural covenant of promises to last?

It started with the promised birth of Isaac, and it gave the Jews a Promised Land where that nation could be established and receive Messiah.

In time the Jews would also be given the Law. But this was ineffective. The Law ceased when the high priest Caiaphas tore his robe as he condemned Jesus.

MATTHEW 26:65   Then the high priest rent his clothes,

saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.

The high priest Aaron had a special robe, reinforced around the neck like a suit of armour, so that it could not be torn.

EXODUS 28:30    And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.

:31     And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue.

:32     And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon,

that it be not rent.

A habergeon is a suit of armour that covers the chest and back.

So the high priest broke the Law which then ceased to exist. God later tore up the Temple veil to show that the Law was ended.

MATTHEW 27:51   And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom;

and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

Being torn from the top indicates that it was God Who did the tearing.

The Jews destroyed the Law in their cruel hatred because of their lust to kill their Messiah.

They chose Barabbas, a man of death, rather than Jesus, the Man of Life.

From the birth of the natural promised son Isaac, to the death of the spiritual promised Son Jesus,

was the time span allocated to the nation of Israel in order to produce the Messiah as the Saviour.

Jesus could only save people when He died for their sins. So the Jews had to kill Him.

Daniel got the answer to this length of time, it was 2300 days.

After killing Messiah the Jews effectively dropped out of God’s plan. God turned to the Gentiles to look for a church.

In prophecy, a day can mean a Bible year of 360 days.

Jacob wanted to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel. Laban said he must work seven years for her. Laban called this a week.

So in the Bible, a day can represent a year.

GENESIS 29:27   Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.

The Tribulation time is called 42 months or 1260 days. A score is 20 days.

REVELATION 11:2   But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

:13     And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Thus each Bible month is exactly 30 days.  There are 1260 days in 42 months that are 30 days long.

So a Bible year of 12 months has 12 x 30 = 360 days.

 

Isaac was the promised son or natural seed of Abraham.

But Isaac was just the shadow or preview of the greater Promised Seed of Abraham, Jesus.

The high priest Caiaphas ended the Law, so a new covenant had to be made.

The new spiritual covenant only became effective when Jesus died and His Holy Spirit left His body of flesh.

Only Jesus could fulfill the promises of salvation as He had to die and carry our sins far away down to hell.

Nobody else could die and then be able to conquer death. Only His Blood could cleanse the Heavenly sanctuary from sin. (Lucifer was in Heaven when he introduced sin). Only the Blood of Jesus could turn the heavenly judgement seat into a mercy seat.

Calvary laid the sure foundation for the promise of a new Heaven and a new Earth.

Calvary thus became the central event of the human race. There Jesus laid the permanent foundation for the Kingdom of Heaven.

From the birth of Isaac, the natural promised son, salvation moved into the Jewish nation and was later governed by the Law.

From the death of Jesus, the spiritual promised Son, salvation moved into the Gentile nations and was governed by Grace.

This can be symbolized by the Gentile image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream.

The cross was the "crossing over" of salvation from the Jews to the Gentiles.

Thus Calvary became the single most significant event in human history.

DANIEL 8:13   Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?

This verse deals with four issues.

The daily sacrifice in the Temple stopped having any meaning after Jesus died, as He was the ultimate Sacrifice.

Transgression is to break or disobey God’s Word.

The Jewish transgression was their rejection of their Messiah Who had fulfilled the Word of God.

Having no further meaning for their Temple sacrifices they ended up with their temple being destroyed in an almost 2000 year exile of persecution. Spiritually this was sheer desolation of trying to keep a temple-centred faith without a Temple. The consequence of their great transgression.

The sanctuary or Temple was destroyed or trampled underfoot in AD 70 by the Roman general Titus.

About 2000 years later unbelief will come to its climax at the end of the Tribulation as the final Pope collects his vast world-wide military host to destroy Israel and Jerusalem. Then he will be destroyed by Jesus at Armageddon and his host trampled underfoot until their blood reaches the bridle of a horse.

REVELATION 14:19   And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

:20   And the winepress was trodden without the city,

and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

Eight furlongs to a mile. The blood-soaked corpses pile up for 200 miles.

EZEKIEL 39:4   Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.

:5     Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

Standing in sunlight on a dark day, an angel calls for vultures.

REVELATION 19:17   And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

:18     That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

These people lived only for the lusts of the flesh.

Who are all these people that die at Armageddon? The final beast Pope and all his armies. A huge host waiting to be trampled underfoot by Jesus.

REVELATION 19:19   And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

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

After the beasts and the vultures gorge themselves, then the surviving Jews will spend the first seven months of the Millennium, or thousand years of peace, burying the dead. This blood and what remains after being eaten will fertilize the soil.

The Jews rejected Jesus as a Man. This was their great transgression.  God broke them off as a nation from His olive tree. In AD 70 their Temple was destroyed by the Romans. Today the Mosque of Omar stands on the Temple site as the abomination of desolation. They spent most of the almost 2000 years of the church ages in exile and persecuted desolation. The Gentiles, wild by nature, were grafted into God’s olive tree by His grace.

History repeats.

At the end the Gentile church will reject Jesus as the Word of God because He stands outside the church door and knocks.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

:17   ... and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind

REVELATION 3:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:

Once our beliefs become unscriptural, then we are actually separated from God.

Denominational religion is unscriptural.

The mother of denominational churches is Roman Catholicism.

Human church traditions are just a spiritual desolation as there is no eternal life in them.

Glitz, glamour, entertainment, and style are just a thin veneer that cannot properly cover the ruins of unscriptural church traditions.

Then God breaks the Gentile branch off that was grafted into the olive tree. Thus, in the end, it is time to graft the Jewish branch back into the olive tree again to produce the 144000 Jews.

The daily sacrifice that the Jews had to offer up in the Temple was replaced by the Sacrifice of Christ.

61-0618  REVELATION  CHAPTER  FIVE.2

And Christ came and preached and prophesied just exactly three and a half years, and the daily sacrifice was taken away,

61-0308  EXPECTATIONS

John, when he walked out there, and he was standing on the banks of the Jordan, standing preaching. And the priests across the banks said, "You mean to tell me there'll come a day, when the daily sacrifice will be taken away from the temple, and there won't be any more sacrifices, oblations over?"

He said, "There'll come a day that there'll be One come that'll be the Sacrifice."

So the real Sacrifice is Jesus.

65-0220  GOD'S  CHOSEN  PLACE  OF  WORSHIP

One day he was standing there, a preaching. The priests was across the other side, said,

"You mean there'll come a time the daily sacrifice will be taken away; this great temple that we've built, and all the work we put on, us big denomination?"

He said, "There'll come a time when all that'll be done away."

"It can't be. You're a false prophet!"

And he looked around. He said, "Behold, there He is! There's God's chosen place of worship. There's the Lamb, the real Lamb that takes away the sin of the world." He didn't say, "Here comes the Methodist, here comes the Baptist, or the Catholic." He said, "There comes the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."

The only safety zone there is is in that Lamb of God.

In Him alone is salvation; not in any church,

any creed, any people, any father, any mother, any holy man, or nothing, holy place. It's in the Holy God, the Lord Jesus Christ, where God placed His Name on a human Being, for redemption, Who paid the price for us sinners. That's the only place that there is salvation. That's the Rock I stand on.

 

Salvation is in Christ. No church can save anybody.

61-0730M  GABRIEL'S  INSTRUCTIONS  TO  DANIEL

And remember, it has a compound meaning

just like, "Call my son out of Egypt." As Israel was called out, so was Jesus His Son called out.

The following Scripture has a compound meaning for both Jew and Gentile.

DANIEL 8:12   And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression

The whole crowd was against Jesus, demanding His death.

His death ended the daily sacrifice of lambs in the Temple which no longer had any meaning.

The transgression of the Jews was to reject Scripture and be unable to see that Scripture was being fulfilled.

61-0730E  THE  SIXFOLD  PURPOSE  OF  GABRIEL'S  VISIT  TO  DANIEL

Until God is finished with the Gentiles, Israel was blinded. They went off into sin and to transgressions against God, because God blinded their eyes that we might be grafted in.

God blinded them purposely for you and I. They cannot see, because God blinded them. And all Israel, true Israel, shall be saved. What did the Angel say? Glory. "To finish the transgressions of Israel. I've come to tell you that

there'll come a time when Israel's transgressions will be finished."

God will cut off that wild branch and graft into that real branch again.

Then the Gentile church would do the same thing as the Jewish transgression. The Jews rejected Jesus as a Man. The Gentiles will reject Jesus as the revealed Word of God and accept denominational church beliefs. Roman Catholicism was the first denomination and is called the mother church.

61-0806  THE  SEVENTIETH  WEEK  OF  DANIEL

The overspreading of that Roman power to conquer all the sleeping virgins, Jews and all... We'll all be Roman or we won't be nothing. 

 

The daily sacrifice of the church is the daily dying to self and the sacrifice of our self will

so that God’s will can operate within us.

MATTHEW 16:24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

59-0612  ALL  THE  DAYS  OF  OUR  LIFE

I believe that Christian life is a continual sacrifice.

"He that will come after me, let him deny himself daily (every day, not forty-six days, but every day),

take up his cross and follow Me,"

said Jesus. Not just forty-six, but every day... Christian life is one continually Lenten.

Oh, how the Christian loves to do it. He doesn't do it with a grudge; he does it with a feeling that he loves God; and he's glad he can do it.

It's a joy to serve the Lord Jesus. It's a joy to sacrifice.

It's a joy to worship the Lord. It's a joy to be called a fanatic for the Kingdom of God's sake. It's a joy to take a stand for the right, and move from the wrong. Joy to praise Him. It's a joy to abstain from the things of the world. It's in their heart. It's a perfect Lent. Lenten all the time. God's Spirit comes into you and changes your desire.

"Lent" is a Roman Catholic time of abstinence for 46 days.

53-1201  GOD'S  PROVIDED  WAY

And you're bound to be backsliding constantly, so it takes a constant prayer to God.

Paul said, "I die daily."

And if Paul had to die daily, how much more am I going to have to stay there dead all the time, if Paul had to die daily to stay right with God. And so, we'll all have to do that, just die out to ourself. And that's getting God's way.

Our daily sacrifice is to die to self so that Christ can live in us.

54-0516  QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  LAW  HAVING  A  SHADOW

Now, wouldn't you all like to have a real Bible church? A real Bible church where all the spiritual gifts were set in order, everything making manifest just exactly the way it should be. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Now, you're going to have to sacrifice, not money. You're going to have to sacrifice what? Some of your own ideas. You're going to have to sacrifice some time in prayer. You're going to have to sacrifice your... maybe a stubborn will, to break down in humility. See? You're going to have... The whole Christian move is sacrificial. "He that will follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me daily." Is that right? How often do you have to sacrifice? Every day. Paul said, "He died daily; every day, he died."

But there is a whole denominational host that is against this daily sacrifice.

The "prosperity doctrine" in our materialistic world.

A diluted gospel of religious duty, easy to believe in because it is about issues that we want to hear, permissiveness, and “feel good” so that we can relax in complacency and compromise. Half-hearted.

The Gospel of bondage and fear. God is upset with me because I am not doing enough for Him. Try harder. Gospel of busy-ness that leaves us no time for God. Works fueled by fear. A system of control.

Performance-based self-righteousness. Ambition to impress others to gain recognition.

The Gospel of Guilt. I do not measure up despite my best efforts. Entanglements, distractions, selfishness, and fake faith. The fear of hell, the hope of heaven. Self-preservation.

The Gospel of Jesus as a Supplement (like extra vitamin C) for my already too-busy life. I am too busy living for many good and important issues. So Christ is not the centre of my life but is rather just a now-and-again boost when things are not good.

God’s Eternal Purpose takes second place to my immediate needs and responsibilities

The overwhelming host of modern-day Christians are caught up in one or other of these traps.

Very few want to be strictly Scriptural. That leads to a sacrifice of friendship and popularity due to the pain of rejection.

Church Ages Book  CHAPTER 4

In I Corinthians 9:24, Paul says,

"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain."

A crown given to the winner of the Olympic race was a garland of olive branches. But the crown spoken of here in the Revelation, given to a martyr, is the crown of royalty. Jesus calls it the crown of life. The one crown is for those who have striven; the other is for those who have given. Both crowns are incorruptible. They will not perish. The winners of the worldly race of life will soon lose the joy of the plaudits of the world. Their glory will fail. But those who give their lives for God, either by daily striving or shedding their blood as the crowning sacrifice of their lives will be given the crown of life.

PHILIPPIANS 2:12   … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

This is not salvation from hell. You gained that when you first repented. This is salvation from the overwhelming mass of unscriptural church beliefs that are guiding saved Christians into the Tribulation.

MATTHEW 24:13   But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

If we stay with Scripture to the end we will be saved from the Tribulation.

 

Now comes a great prophecy of 2300 days that ends at Calvary. Our problem is to find when the prophecy starts.

DANIEL 8:14   And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

61-0618  REVELATION  CHAPTER  FIVE.2

Now, there was a time when it was in dispute. From the fortieth day, from the beginning of the first day of the cleansing of the sanctuary, or Christ went to Calvary, there was forty days unto the ascension.

54-0515  QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS

There is no such a thing as tarrying meeting. You've been in error. "Tarry" doesn't mean "pray," "tarry" means "to wait." After the ascension, after Jesus Christ, the crucifixion, the cleansing of the sanctuary, and after the day of the atonement, the resurrection...

 

A Bible year is 360 days long. Our Roman or Gentile year is 365.24 years long.    Thus 5.24 days longer.

So in 69 years, we have  5.24 x 69 = 361 extra days. This is basically an extra Jewish Bible year.

So 70 Bible years =  69 0f our modern Gentile years.

Thus for every 70 Bible years, we must subtract 1 year to convert it to our calendar.

2300 Bible years / 70 = 33 years.

2300 – 33 = 2267 modern Gentile or Roman years.

Dates were always based on when a king or emperor began to rule.

Augustus was the most famous Roman emperor and he died in 14 AD. His adopted son Tiberius began to rule in 14 AD. This was the year that the Roman Senate confirmed him as emperor.

LUKE 3:1   Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,…

:2   … the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

So 14  +  15  =  29 AD   is the year that John the Baptist began to preach.

Some months later, around October,  Jesus came to him to be baptized. By then most of the year 29 AD was over.

LUKE 3:23   And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age,

The dates coincide neatly. It was almost 30 AD and Jesus was almost 30.

So the Bible establishes that Jesus was in fact born in the year zero. Which is where our calendar starts.

Thus Jesus would die in April of the year 33 AD after His three and a half year ministry.

So subtract 33 years to start at the year zero.

2267 – 33 = 2234 BC  which is the year of Isaac’s birth.

 

In order to check this date, we find that many historians claim that Solomon began to rule about 970 BC.

It is very difficult to try to fix this date accurately. But we can accept 970 BC as being approximately correct.

Let us trace the years from Isaac's birth to when Solomon began to build the Temple.

For simplicity, we will work in Bible years and then convert the total to our modern Gentile years.

GENESIS 25:26   And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.

A score is 20.  So Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob was born.

GENESIS 41:46   And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.

GENESIS 41:47   And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.

:48     And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.

By the time the 7 good years were over, Joseph was  30 + 7 = 37 years old.

Pharaoh’s dream promised 7 good years and 7 years of famine according to Joseph’s interpretation.

GENESIS 41:29   Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:

:30     And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;

After the famine started, Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt for food. Joseph said that there were still 5 years of famine left.

GENESIS 45:11   And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine;

Thus two years of famine had passed, so Joseph was  37 + 2  =  39 years old.

The brothers went back to get their father Jacob who stood in front of Pharaoh claiming to be 130 years old.

 

GENESIS 47:8   And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?

:9     And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years:

So Jacob was 130 when Joseph was 39.

Thus Jacob was 91 when Joseph was born.

So Isaac was 60 when Jacob was born.         60 years had passed from the birth of Isaac.

Jacob was 91 when Joseph was born.           60  +  91  =  151 had years passed since the birth of Isaac.

GENESIS 50:26   So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old:

151  +  110  =  261 years had passed since the birth of Isaac when Joseph died.

Joseph was the last generation of the seed of Abraham that was still physically in Abraham’s loins when God made a covenant with Abraham and his seed. Thus the covenant applied to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

 

HEBREWS 7:9    And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.

:10     For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.

Levi, and his brethren who formed the 12 tribes, were physically in the loins of their great grandfather Abraham when God made the covenant with Abraham and his seed that were in him.

When Joseph died the covenant made with Abraham by God was then complete.

GENESIS 15:13   And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

The Jews in Egypt were not afflicted while Joseph was alive.

They had to await a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph. This happened 30 years later.

EXODUS 1:8   Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

EXODUS 1:11   Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.

EXODUS 12:41   And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

There were 30 years of peace and 400 years of affliction in Egypt before the Jews left Egypt.

261 + 430 = 691 years passed since the birth of Isaac, when the Jews left Egypt.

I KINGS 6:1   And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

691 + 480 = 1171 years after the birth of Isaac Solomon began to build the Temple.

Convert 1171 years from Bible years to our longer years:   1171/70 =  17 years

So 1171 Bible years = 1171 – 17 =  1154 of our years

From the birth of Isaac    2234 BC  - 1154  =  1080 BC  which is 110 years away from 970 BC.

However, in the days of the Judges, they were afflicted for a total of 111 years by the surrounding pagan tribes.

God did not count these years as their enemies were ruling them. In that sense the Jews were not living by their own laws in the Promised Land. They were under a military yoke and bondage and had to serve and obey their pagan enemies. Just like they had been in bondage to the Egyptians. In that sense, they had not escaped from their bondage in Egypt as they experienced this bondage in Israel.

JUDGES 3:8Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years.

JUDGES 3:14   So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

JUDGES 4:3    And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.

JUDGES 6:1    And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

JUDGES 10:7   And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.

:8     And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

JUDGES 13:1   And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

8 + 18 + 20 + 7 + 18 + 40 = 111 years of serving and obeying enemy rulers that were not counted.

To convert to Gentile years: 111 -2 = 109 years

1080 – 109 = 971 BC when Solomon began to build.

So if three years passed before Solomon began to build the Temple then he began to reign three years before this in  971 + 3 = 974 BC  which is very close to the time that historians think he began to reign.

Thus the 2300 years of the prophecy, in Bible years, began with the birth or the coming of the promised natural son Isaac and ended with the death of the spiritual Son or Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ.

DANIEL 8:15   And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.

DANIEL 8:16   And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.

It is impossible for us to understand these visions unless the Holy Spirit reveals them in a way that agrees with both history and the rest of Scripture.

DANIEL 8:17   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.

If we are at the end time then these prophecies will become known.

If these prophecies remain unknown then we are not at the end time yet.

But Israel was declared a nation in 1948. She won back a large part of her ancient territory in 1967. In 2018 President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Israel is now restored and the budding fig tree is a distinct sign that we are close to the end.

God removes the church in the so-called Rapture when He turns back to the Jews.

With the Jews back in their homeland, God is obviously turning back to the Jews.

DANIEL 8:18   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.

Abraham was put into a deep sleep when God made a covenant with him and his seed,

Now that Daniel is about to understand, he also falls fast asleep.

DANIEL 8:19   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.

A woman represents a church. A virgin is a clean woman. This represents a saved church. So the parable of the ten virgins represents all the saved churches, both Christians who are Spirit-filled and those who are not Spirit-filled.

And at the end time, according to the parable, they are all fast asleep. So when God is about to move on the scene and reveal things, people fall asleep.

DANIEL 8:20   The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.

The red was the empire of the Medes that co-ruled with Cyrus the Great of the Persians.

The green represents the Persian empire.

DANIEL 8:21   And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

Then came Alexander the Great from Greece who was the first western man to declare himself to be a god. His amazing achievements made many people believe him.

DANIEL 8:22   Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.

After 20 years of vicious infighting, four of his generals divided his empire into four sections. They each only ruled a portion of Alexander’s original empire. But each general declared himself to be a man-god.

From Daniel's viewpoint, the important section was the smallest piece around the city of Pergamos where the Babylonian priesthood had set up their mysteries after Cyrus conquered Babylon. This portion then grew into the very rich kingdom of Pergamos whose king was recognized as a priest-king and man-god and Pontiff by the Babylonian mystery priesthood.

In 133 BC the very wealthy kingdom of Pergamos was given to Rome. In 63 BC the Roman Julius Caesar became the Pontiff and after his death was the first man in Rome to be worshiped as a god. Thus the Babylonian priesthood was now established in the Roman Empire. By 450 AD the bishop of Rome had taken over the title of Pontiff or Pope. So the Babylonian priesthood moved into the spiritual kingdom of the Roman Catholic church as it spread around the world as a political church power and money power.

Although Alexander the Great was not the first human to receive divine honors, his self-deification set an example for Hellenistic kings, Roman emperors, and other rulers.

In 1302 Pope Boniface VIII claimed the necessity of belonging to the Catholic church for eternal salvation. He claimed that the position of the Pope was to be the supreme head of the Church. Thus it was the duty of everyone to be in submission to the Pope in order to belong to the Church and thus to attain salvation. The Pope thus stands in the place of God on earth. Salvation depended on obedience to the Pope.

In the Dark Ages the Pope sold indulgences which claimed that the Pope could forgive sin. Thus the Pope took the place of God.

In 1870 the Pope declared himself infallible, making him God on earth. Only God is infallible.

Thus the Roman Catholic church rises up to be a rich and powerful organization that plans to rule the whole world.

DANIEL 8:23   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, shall stand up.

At the end of the seven church ages evil will reach its climax. In Revelation Chapter 6 there is a white horse of religious deception that was crowned in the person of Pope Nicholas 1 around the year 860 AD. Around 1310 this became a triple crown. Then the red horse of Roman Catholic political power slaughtered tens of millions of dissenters in the Dark Ages and the counter-Reformation which opposed Martin Luther’s Reformation of the 1500s. The Popes steadily rose in importance until the Pope is now one of the most influential political and religious leaders. Then the black horse of money power  would raise the Vatican to the world’s wealthiest organization. Thus the corruption of the church comes to its peak.

Then at the end of the seventh church age, the Devil will enter a man who usurps the position of Pope.

DANIEL 11:21   And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

The final antichrist Pope will not be elected by the Council of Cardinals as is the usual way to become Pope. Somehow he will talk his way into the position of Pope. Fierce countenance.  Not an easy man to oppose.

Understanding dark sentences. He makes very deep but deceptive statements that fool people. But he has a gift of looking peaceful and being able to make peace that will fool everyone.

Who does not want peace? Everyone will be impressed with a peacemaker. But it is a temporary peace.

I THESSALONIANS 5:3   For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

DANIEL 8:24   And his power shall be mighty, 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.

The final Pope (probably Peter the Second) will have great religious, political, and money power. But he lacks military power. He will get this from ten dictators.

REVELATION 17:12   And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

Power as kings. They have a king’s power but wear no crown. They are 10 dictators.

The Pope is the only dictator in Europe at this stage in 2019.

“One hour” is the brief 3½ years of the Tribulation.

REVELATION 17:13   These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

One mind. Ten dictators, the ten toes of Daniel’s Gentile image, all in submission to the final antichrist Pope. These ten dictators give their military power to the  Pope.  Ten armies scattered around the world is the most effective way to control the world. Wherever trouble breaks out there will be a military force nearby to crush the dissent.

This is far more efficient as it takes America 6 months to move and set up its army in another part of the world. Even then the American military struggles to go to two different regions at one time.

With this military power he crushes all opposition. He kills the foolish virgins, the saved Christians who missed the Rapture that caught the true church up to meet the Lord in the air.

REVELATION 13:15   And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

The Protestant churches will combine into a united world-wide union of denominations to gain religious, political, and money power. This imitates the Roman Catholic church’s success. The beast is Roman Catholicism. The image is the union of Protestant churches who adopt the organizational practices of the Roman church. The Pope is the only dictator in Europe. Protestant pastors also rule their churches as dictators. The one-man leader of a church policy. Those who oppose the denominational policies will finally be killed.

“and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people”

These are the Jews. The Vatican has access to the gold of the world. The Jews have access to the money on the stock exchange. By understanding dark sentences, the final Pope makes a financial covenant with the Jews. Then breaks the covenant as he takes over all their money. Thus he destroys them financially before attacking them militarily.

DANIEL 8:25   And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

“craft” is handicraft. Manufacturing. He creates jobs in a world that is going bankrupt.

REVELATION 13:17    And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

But you have to belong to his one-world government and one-world religion in order to get work.

This antichrist Pope will be unstoppable by means of human strength. He will set himself up as if he is God on earth. Only the return of the Lord at Armageddon will destroy him.

DANIEL 8:26   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.

Only at the end time will we be able to understand this vision.

The Jewish day is unusual. It starts with the evening. Then the night. Then the morning.

But it is written as “the evening and the morning”. The night is excluded. Why?

God created the earth out of nothing in the beginning. When God made the earth suitable for human life then he chose a certain unit of time as a day.

GENESIS 1:5    And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

There was day and night but God ignored the night. Darkness is simply the absence of light.

God refused to consider the absence of light as part of His timing.

God only considers the light as worth counting in His definition of a day.

So when we try to serve God, he does not count the times when we indulge in unscriptural errors, as we then are walking in the absence of light. We only serve God when we believe and live by what is written in the Bible, because that is the only Light that we have.

God was not too concerned with the first church. Jesus trained up the apostles and they wrote down the truth in the New Testament. The apostles kept the early church in order until the last apostle, John, died about 100 AD. Then the Lord knew that truth would slowly die out as the world went into the Dark Ages. Then the Reformation, the missionary age, and the return of Pentecostal power would revive the church but much Scriptural error would remain.

So the end-time prophet William Branham between 1947 and 1965 recorded his sermons that revealed the mysteries of Scripture. This end-time revelation of Bible truth was God’s special concern as it would be at the time when religious error in the churches comes to its peak. The last church (the children) had to be restored back to the New Testament beliefs of the apostles (the fathers).  The apostles were the only ones who had the full truth of the Word. But Jesus is the Word. That Jesus said, Suffer the little children (the end-time Christians) to come unto Me (the original Bible truth) rather than unto the modern-day church traditions and church doctrines.

MATTHEW 19:14   But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Today churches forbid people to be strictly Scriptural. Churches claim that the shepherd is the pastor, even though there is no Scripture that says this. "Pastors" are only mentioned once in the New Testament but are condemned, prophetically, six times in the Old Testament. Being mentioned once in the New Testament does not give a pastor any authority to rule a church.

But if people disagree with church traditions and oppose the pastor they get kicked out of the church. Thus the people who want to be Scriptural really do suffer in this last age, just like Jesus said they would.

So the end time revelation of the truth is the Evening Light.

The Tribulation is the night time of darkness.

The Morning Light is the Millennium kingdom or 1000 years of peace.

So when the Bible says: "Evening and Morning” it is referring to the end-time church. So the Evening  Light restores the New Testament Truth of the apostolic fathers to the end-time Bride. Then comes the Rapture that removes her from the earth.

Thus the Bride does not go through the night of the Tribulation as she is up in Heaven at the Wedding Feast.

The Bride then returns at the end of the Tribulation with Jesus when He comes for Armageddon to destroy the beast and set up His 1000 year kingdom which is the Morning for the earth as it is the first real-time of peace on earth.

So “evening and morning” simply means that the Bride misses going through the night of the Tribulation.

DANIEL 8:26   And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true:

This is a prophecy of how the true church ends.

It is a confusing time of partial Scriptural truth and partial church traditional errors that enable Christians to get saved but makes them unable to avoid the coming Tribulation. The true Bride learns the first church age apostolic truths from the evening light messenger. Raptured to heaven, they miss the night of the Tribulation. Then return for the morning of the millennium as the 1000 years of peace starts.

ZECHARIAH 14:6    And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:

Just enough light to get saved in the modern churches, thus not too dark. But not enough light to understand the deeper mysteries of Scripture, thus a dim and indistinct light. This is a confused age of saved Christians who believe that there are faults, myths, wrong translations, irrelevant details, and contradictions in the Bible.

But Jesus is the Word. So all the faults that they claim are in the Bible, they do not realize they are actually finding those faults in Jesus. But Jesus is perfect.

So the King James Version of the Bible must also be perfect.

After all, the Word of God will judge us one day.

:7   But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

A brief ray of light that pierces the semi-darkness of the saved churches so that we can, if we are outside the church door where Jesus is, understand what is written in the Bible. Enough light to understand the Bible and make us realize that the Scripture is perfect.

Light means the ability to understand what is written in the Bible.

DANIEL 8:27   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.

Being spiritual enough to see visions was physically demanding. The flesh gets weak in the presence of the Spirit. But what an honour to us at the end time that God can reveal to us the thoughts that Daniel was unable to understand.

 

 

 

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” — 1 Corinthians 16:23