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Reading Bible Prophecy Anyone who has read Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, or Revelation has discovered the challenge of understanding Biblical Prophecy. It is my intention on this page to help out by showing readers the solutions to various difficult passages. Remember, God puts the cookies on the bottom shelf. He wants you to understand!
© 2008 by Stephen Amy Daniel 8:14 2300 evening-mornings Daniel 8:13-14, 26
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, “How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?”14 And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be properly restored.”
26 “And the vision of the evenings and mornings
Which has been told is true;
But keep the vision secret,
For it pertains to many days in the future.” NASB
Discussion Daniel is told that the career of the little horn will be for 2300 evening-mornings as he opposes and dominates the people of the Commander of the host. To understand this measure of time we go first to the further explanation of the angel in Daniel 8:26. In the matter of all the other things Daniel saw, the angel had to explain what they meant. Here he says, the 2300 evening-mornings are true. In other words "What you saw is what it is." No further explanation needed. But it is here, right at this point that most mistakes are made. Readers bring their baggage and prejudices to the passsage that keep them from accepting the simple meaning. We all know what an evening is, we all know what a morning is, we all know what a day is. But because there are those who do not understand how to reconcile the plain sense of the creation account and the findings of science, the Genesis language stating a litereal six-day creation is redefined to mean something else. Listen, God knew we were going to have a problem here, that's why He used the evening and morning language. If you wanted to communicate to someone the word "day," meaning a day of the week rather than a long period of time, "an evening and a morning one day," is as good as it gets! And then when Gabriel is finishing his explanation of the 2300 evening and mornings, he says they "pertain to many days" (v. 26). Unfortunately many Bibles add the words "in the future" at the end of verse 26, but that is not in the text. Gabriel is simply anticipating the confusion and stating the truth. But here we are 2500 years later calling it everything but what he said! Next, we must ask, "Why is God communicating in Daniel 8 the passage of time in this Genesis One measure of time?" This conjoining of evening-morning is used only here and in Genesis One. We review Genesis One and simply note that as God did His work of creation, He recorded two events, an evening and a morning, and that would be one day. After the sixth day He rested on the seventh, but there is no mention of an evening and a morning on that seventh day. It simply says He rested. The evening-morning phrase is used exclusively for a work day, not the seventh day, or Sabbath. Next we notice that the little horn tampers with time keeping, as recorded in Dan 7:25, "make alterations in times and in laws," and in like manner takes the continual away from Him [the Commander of the Host], Dan 8:11, 12, 13; 11:31; 12:11. (Most English Bibles say "daily sacrifice" to their discredit. But there is only one common word here which means "regular," "continual," "repetitive," denoting some continuous regular act. There is no word for "sacrifice" here.) We should have also noted or will note that Daniel's time sensitive words concerning the other end-time passages are in terms of 3 1/2 years, 3 1/2 units of time, or week of years divided in half (7:25; 9:27; 12:7, 11, 12). A Simple Answer The 2300 events of evening-morning are 1150 work days (here we use Genesis as our formula, "an evening and a morning were one day"). But something else is needed. This obvious end-time passage that should add up to 3 1/2 years does not, if we count it as it appears. God knows that by using this Genesis work day, evening and morning, his people will understand that this period should include something else that is not overtly stated, and that the something is the Sabbath to be complete. It is simply a fact that every six days (or 12 events of evenings-mornings) God's people observe the Sabbath (Ex 20:8). So we take 1150 work days, adding a Sabbath after every six days to arrive at the total passage of time for the career of the little horn. Thus we must add 191 missing Sabbaths to the 1150 work days. (That is 2300 divided by 2=1150. 1150 divided by 6 work days reveals 191 missing Sabbaths, then adding 191 Sabbaths to the 1150 work days=1341 or 3 1/2 years and the extra time revealed in Daniel 12:12.) This and the notification that he takes the continual worship away from Him reveals that the end-time ruler will outlaw the Sabbath and change the calendar. I hope that you have not spent a lifetime trying to make one of the many proposed "solutions to the 2300 evening-mornings" work out to no avail. By the way, have you ever noticed before reading this that the Sabbath is not described as an evening-morning? Or, have you ever noticed that the creative acts of God began in the "evening" and finished in the "morning?" [Is there an "evening" going on in your life right now?" " "Morning" is coming!]
Revelation 13:1-3
1 And he stood on the sand of the seashore.
And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.
2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;
The New American Standard Bible, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1977. Discussion [under construction] The beast that John sees coming up out of the sea has been interpreted in many different ways. But this is another one of those prophetic passages where we get guidance and explanations from angels that interpret the symbols. The same beast is portrayed again in chapter 17 in a scene where an angel explains many of the details John encounters here. So our job of interpretation is made easier. John first sees the beast rising from the sea, suggesting immediately the vision of Daniel 7:3, where Daniel records seeing four beasts coming up out of the sea. All of the beasts are revealed to be leaders/nations by the angel who helps Daniel to understand (7:17 "king" cf. 23 "fourth kingdom"). The reader is further encouraged to see with John a national entity arising from the sea because of the animal traits given by both John and Daniel in their visions. John's beast has seven heads, while Daniels has only four. This is of course because in the book of Revelation the number seven universally stands for "all," "the total," "complete," "the fullness of." John's beast with seven heads puts on display the seven nations (in the Bible) that have opposed and enslaved God's people: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Roman, End-time. Daniel also sees that one of these heads/nations has ten horns which are explained to be ten kings/kingdoms. The fourth head of Daniel's vision is greater than the preceding head and chronologically last of the beasts, giving birth to a confederation of ten kings, three of whom must be brought under the control of the most prominent member ("little horn") and leader of the confederation. John's vision in chapter 13 focuses on the seventh head which is mortally wounded but then raised again as a confederation of ten horns, or nations with kings. We see later in chapter 13 that it is led by a lamb with two horns, two individuals sharing leadership (we see them later as the beast and false prophet being thrown into the lake of fire). The angel who speaks to John in chapter 17 gives us the key when explaining the seven heads of the beast. He says, "they are...seven mountains...seven kings...five have fallen, one is, one is yet to come..." (17:9-10). Mountain is the common term for kingdom in the Bible. At the time the angel spoke to John five kingdoms had come against and captured God's people and later fallen: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. The Roman Empire then held them captive in John's time. There was one yet to come. It would appear to be a powerful empire, appear to die from a fatal wound but then be resurrected for a short time as a confederation of ten kingdoms/kings, as the end time kingdom of the beast. This last confederation would last for only a short while. This terrible empire that once held God's people captive, spreading over the face of the earth, thought to be dead but now resurrected and powerful in the confederation of her former pieces, and some display of awesome power, is worshipped by those whose names are not in the book of life. |
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