The vision of Nebuchadnezzar is the first vision in the book of Daniel (Daniel Chapter 2) and provides a foundation for the four visions that follow. They all point to a climax that will occur in “the last days.” Reggie Kelly and Phil Norcom lead us through the five visions of Daniel with emphasis on what they mean for Israel and the Church (The Mystery of Israel). September 10, 2010: mi-a-004
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Hello Reggie, hope and pray that all of you are fine while preparing for your Event! Reggie, I was reading your article ” Recommended reading ……, well done. But I want to ask you one important question, is it NOT Time now to explain to the readers about the destruction […]
Dear Reggie, Would you agree with this short, non-detailed summary of Romans 9, 10 and 11? Feel free to modify or add to it as you see fit. Summary of Romans 9, 10 and 11: The apostle Paul is not sorrowful because the Word of God is being nullified by […]
that ill-prepares the people of God for what is ahead for both Israel and the church. Preterism puts the tribulation in the past. Amillennialism conceives of a “little season” of Satan’s release at the end of this age, with little specificity, and certainly no definite relationship to Israel. Historicism, with its often failed ‘year day’ theory, spreads the tribulation out over history, with an intensive resurgence at the end, while Pre-tribulationism exempts the church from any presence or role in the tribulation, so that “Jacob’s trouble” is only “Jacob’s problem”, since the church is in heaven at the wedding feast while Israel suffers the Antichrist. Hence, ours is a comparatively rare perspective that sees both Israel and the church together in a literal tribulation of 3 ½ years of unequaled affliction, as the church is engaged in prophetic witness and intercessory travail for the final redemption of the covenant nation, amid a common experience of world wide flight and persecution.
When aware of a future great tribulation, the primary concern has been the purification of the church through persecution. This is true, and we believe the church will be greatly transformed, but the primary purpose of “the tribulation, the great one” is to accomplish the historic fulfillment of what the prophets call, the ‘everlasting covenant’ (Isa 59:21; Jer 32:40; Ro 11:27), which necessarily requires the full coming in of “all Israel”, whom Paul identifies as the “natural branches” of present enmity (Ro 11:21, 24, 28). In conjunction with Christ’s return, the restoration of Israel finishes the mystery of God (Rev 10:7) and begins the millennial reign of Christ. […]
[…] Writing after the exile, Zechariah mentions nothing of another dispersion, but he certainly contemplates a Jewish presence in the Land when describing the distress that precedes the day of the Lord. So unless the prophecies are to be spiritualized, something had to give. Somehow, the Jews had to be a nation again in the Land (Dan 12:1). That’s where we are today. We have come full circle. The early church lived and labored under the shadow of an imminent destruction of Jerusalem. We’re there again. The only difference is the church for the large part is sound asleep (Mt 25:5).
Of course, the expectation of the early church concerning Jerusalem was fulfilled, as also foretold by Jesus. However, with the destruction of Jerusalem, there came the crisis of what scholars call, “the delay of the Parousia” (coming). Although Jerusalem was destroyed, Jesus did not return to destroy the Antichrist “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Mt 24:29; 2Thes 2:8), as expected. Furthermore, Daniel’s people were not delivered and the dead did not rise (Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1-2, 13; Ro 11:26). […]
[… Perhaps, you say: “I don’t believe the Israelites are to be restored to Canaan, and Jerusalem rebuilt.”
Dear reader! have you read the declarations of God’s word about it? Surely nothing is more plainly stated in the Scriptures. We would that we had space to quote the passages, but we can only give you a portion of the references. We beg of you to read them thoughtfully. Divest yourself of prejudice and preconceived notions, and let the Holy Spirit show you, from His word, the glorious future of God’s chosen people, “who are beloved” (Rom. 11 :28), and dear unto Him as “the apple of His eye.” Zech. 2:8. […]
[…] The church that understands the issues related to Jacob’s trouble will be able to benefit from the divine intention that God has invested in that time to bring both the church and Israel into their place. Knowledge and acceptance of this truth is crucial if such great and costly judgments and the glorious fulfillment of the prophetic Word will not be lost on our understanding, since it is also through that understanding (particularly of Daniel’s vision) that the true remnant of the church will be able to instruct many (Dan 11:33; 12:3). This instruction will result in the salvation of an innumerable multitude (Rev 7:9) that will come to faith during the time of “the tribulation, the great one” (Rev 7:14; literal translation of the Greed double article). The key of interpretation and understanding will be the difference between life and death. It has always been so, but this is particularly said of “those days” (Dan 12:7; Mt 24:19, 22, 29) in particular.
Not only will Jacob’s trouble straighten Israel to its appointed place; it will also further purify and perfect the church (dn 11:33-35; 12:10). When the first travail of the heavenly woman (“the mother of us all,” i.e., all the elect) is completed with Michael’s eviction of Satan at the mid-point of the last week, then the travail of Israel can begin, which ends in the sudden and supernatural birth of the nation “in one day” (Isa 66:8; Ezek 39:22; Zech 3:9; 12:10 with Mt 23:39; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:26 with Isa 59:21; Joel 2:31; 3:14-16 with Mt 24:29).
All the great issues of God’s name and nature, his covenant contention, and pleading with the church, Israel, and the nations will come to its concentrated intensity and fullness, so that the mystery of God can be finished (Rev 10:7; 11:15) with the return of Christ to destroy the Man of Sin (2Thes 2:8) and to re-instate the natural branches for the millennial establishment of the “everlasting covenant”. […]
[…] That Paul has the same trumpet in view in 1Cor 15:52 is put beyond reasonable question when it is considered that he tells us precisely which time and which resurrection is in view. It is the time of the resurrection of the saints of the Old Testament Isa 25:8; 26:19). It is plainly evident that Paul is deliberately associating the time of the church’s translation with the time of the resurrection of the Old Testament saints. He clearly says that the time of the ‘last trump’ is also the time of the resurrection mentioned in Isa 25:8. This is precisely what Paul is doing when he says, “Then shall be brought to pass the saying which is written …” (1Cor 15:54).
When is “then”? Well, to the chagrin of pre-tribulational teaching, “the saying” is written in Isa 25:8, which is undeniably situated in a post-tribulational context. This is ignored by pre-tribulational teaching. Paul’s statement, “then shall be brought to pass the saying which is written,” is passed over in convenient silence. However, then means then, and Paul’s “then” is manifestly the time of the last trump. […]
[…] Through the mystery of the gospel, this grace (the salvation of the coming day) has appeared to all men in unexpected advance of THAT DAY. This is the revelation of the one new man through the mystery of Christ in you (even you gentiles), but this takes nothing from the promise that the gospel will yet be revealed to the beleaguered remnant at the end of Jacob’s trouble. That will be the time of the “restitution of all things spoken by all the prophets since the world began.” To conceive of that restoration as NOT including God’s covenant promise to ‘post-tribulational Israel would have been unthinkable, as it surely was to Paul. Instead, the church, for the larger part, continues to “boast against the branches” to this day, even while Jerusalem trembles (Isa 34:8; Zech 12:2), threatening the “literal” fulfillment of all unfulfilled prophecy that has been denied for most of church history.
So despite Jewish unbelief concerning Christ, the covenant places and institutions are still divinely regarded as “holy”. Therefore, when we speak of the rage of the Antichrist against the “holy covenant” (Dan 11:28, 30), we are speaking of Satan’s hatred of Jewish election and right to the Land on the basis of divine predestination. We are NOT suggesting that Jewish worship counts for anything apart from faith in Christ. Manifestly, it does not. Otherwise, their worship would be acceptable. That it is NOT acceptable is shown by the fact that Israel’s greatest discipline and judgment comes at the very time their religious self assurance is reaching its heights […]
[…] How we read Daniel and Revelation is first an issue of whether we can trust what Luther called, the priesthood of every believer, or whether we can only safely follow the tradition of interpretation that has come down to us through many of the churchs theological heroes, such as the famed magisterial Reformers, Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, and their vast theological progeny, as also the popes and bishops of the church of Rome. For the larger part, all have been Augustinian in their interpretation of the Daniel and the Apocalypse. This is why amillennialism has dominated most of Protestant and nearly all Roman Catholic eschatology. It is well known that St. Augustine of Hippo is the father of the a-millennial interpretation of the thousand years (i.e., that the church is the kingdom of God on earth and the millennium is symbolic of the church age).
Augustinian denial of a future millennium is not the only system of interpretation that denies the literal interpretation of the many prophecies that depict the post-tribulational salvation of a surviving remnant of the Jewish people and the restoration of the nation as a distinctly Jewish nation (Dan 2:44). Simply put, if there is no millennium, there can be no literal fulfillment of the vast amount of prophecy that depicts a glorious future for benighted and beleaguered Israel after the unequaled tribulation at the coming day of the Lord, which the New Testament equates with the time of Christs return […]
