PROPHECY OF THE END TIMES
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Opening Prayer
As I read Scripture today, Holy Spirit, I look to you to show me more of what I need to follow Christ more closely.
Read DANIEL 12
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The End Times
12 “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”
5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. 6 One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?”
7 The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, times and half a time. When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.”
8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?”
9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
11 “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.
13 “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”
Reflect
God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.1
The prophetic perspective is a way of telescoping multiple events into one. Old Testament prophets sometimes describe an event as if it were a one-time occurrence, but as history unfolds, we discover that they were actually describing several events separated by long periods of time. This passage is a case in point. From a sixth-century BC perspective, Daniel describes events that would occur in the second-century BC (168–165), the first-century AD (70), and at the end of time, at the Parousia, the second coming of Christ, when history as we know it will cease.
The ‘abomination that causes desolation’ (v. 11) is a time of great distress, first experienced by the Jews when Antiochus IV Epiphanes abolished worship in the Jerusalem temple by sacrificing unclean animals on a pagan altar erected on top of the altar of burnt offering.2 The struggles that followed these events led to a great deal of loss of life among the Jews. Second, it describes the destruction of Herod’s Temple by the Romans in 70 AD following an insurrection. Third, it is the suffering of God’s people during the rise of the antichrist at the end of time, when the Lord Jesus returns to wind up history and establish the reign of God.3
Daniel’s name is written in God’s Book of Life (v. 1), and he can look forward to that time when he will rise from the dead, along with all God’s children, to claim his spiritual inheritance (v. 13). This is the first time in the whole of the Old Testament that the doctrine of the resurrection of all people is indicated. Daniel had fought the good fight, run the race, kept his faith,4 and could look forward to his eternal reward.
Apply
Faith in Christ, the most important decision in life, does not immunize us from tribulations and suffering, but it guarantees that we will rise to live eternally with the Lord.
Closing prayer
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for choosing me and calling me to go and bear eternal fruit. I ask that those to whom I witness have minds and hearts ready to receive the truth of the gospel.
1 1 Pet 1:3, 4. 2 Dan 11:31. 3 Rev 20, 21. 4 2 Tim 4:7, 8.
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