IS JESUS COMING SOON? Part Two

THE FIRST BEAST OF DANIEL SEVEN

This week is exciting in that we will learn something different about the first beast of Daniel seven.

As a reminder from last week, remember that beasts are symbolic of nations or kingdoms and their kings. When Jesus touches down on the Mount of Olives these nations of Daniel seven, by context, must be in existence at that time.

The commonly accepted explanation of Daniel's prophecy is that the lion is Babylon, the bear is Media-Persia, the leopard is Greece, and the ten-horn beast is Rome. I used to think that way myself until I came to Daniel chapter eight, which tells of another vision where Daniel sees a Ram and a he-goat fighting. In verses 20 and 21, the Bible declares that the ram is Media-Persia and the he-goat is Greece.

I had to stop and think for a minute. Did God change His mind somewhere between chapter seven and chapter eight? The interpreters just said in chapter seven that the bear was Media-Persia and the leopard was Greece.

According to Daniels prophecy in chapter seven, all kingdoms have to be in existence at the time of Jesus Christ's return. Do Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome exist today? Well, half of them do and half of them do not. I had to be missing something. Let’s look at the beasts again and see what we can find.

Is there anybody out there that does not believe that we are in the last days and close to the second coming of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ? Can we tell by Scripture if these nations exist now? Do we, in fact, live in the end of the age? Is Jesus Christ about to come again?

BEAST NUMBER ONE: The Lion

Our text will continue in Daniel seven starting at verse four with beast number one.

The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.

Is there a nation today whose symbol is the lion? In fact, there is. The lion is the official symbol of Great Britain. Daniel would not have understood the words, Great Britain, and I suspect that this is the reason that God closed and sealed Daniel’s writings and sent him on his way.

God wanted the people living IN the time of the end to know that they were the chosen generation that would see the second coming of Jesus Christ. God also wanted them to know that one of the nations existing at the time of His coming would be Great Britain. In order to do this, God had to use symbols that the end time population would understand.

This is all fine and good but you might ask, "This isn’t Daniel’s complete vision of the first beast. What is the significance of the eagle’s wings?"

Well, that’s a good question.

Can you imagine what Daniel must have thought that after beholding the vision for a while he seen the eagles wings pluck themselves off of the lion’s back and turn into a man standing on its feet? Wow!

Daniel didn’t comprehend, at all, what he was seeing and it is why he prayed for understanding in chapter 12. So. . .why were the wings on the back of the lion and what is their significance? Is there a nation whose symbol is an eagle? You’re way ahead of me on this one.

EAGLES WINGS

There is a nation whose symbol is the eagle and it belongs to America. However, this isn’t the best part. We know that Great Britain is the USA’s mother country and approximately 2300 years ago Daniel saw the breaking away of America from Great Britain when the wings plucked themselves from the lion. That’s amazing to me. The Bible is so awesome.

In order to escape the tyranny and religious persecution of her mother country, 102 pilgrims and 25 crew members boarded the Mayflower and set sail across the Atlantic Ocean 380 years ago and formed what is now referred to as the most powerful, productive, prosperous, giving, and freest nation in the world. However, like the commercial says, "But wait, there’s more." The last part of verse four of Daniel seven says. . .and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.

GIVEN A MAN'S HEART

America has a second symbol and that symbol is Uncle Sam. God gave America a heart: the heart of a free man spoken of in the Declaration of Independence.

To keep the length of this blog down, next week we will look at beast number two and three. In two weeks, we will look at beast number four; the one with ten horns.

God bless you all.

If you would like to see the original and full text of the Declaration of Independence, follow this link. At this site, the document is in the original spelling and words. This is an interesting site. There is much history to find there. You can also get the text of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution as well. Every patriot should all have one.

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