As a reprint of the study of Daniel's Vision was required the occasion arose to check through the introduction in case political events had overtaken what had been written some eleven years previously.
Needless to say this has happened, but we have decided not to change what had been written earlier in order to emphasize to the reader the dramatic fast pace of world events unfolding in our time. Indeed, there may well be some readers who will not even be able to recall the names of people and places that we refer to in our earlier introduction - which only confirms what we have said in the following pages before we come to the unchanging Word of God concerning `Daniel's Vision'.
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WINDS OF CHANGE No 9
`I want to know the true meaning of the beast'
There was a day in mid-November 1991 when the newspapers seemed to exude what can only be described as `excitable tension', making the newsprint almost come alive, and so it was obviously a time to stand back and enquire of the Lord as to what was really being said to cause so much excitable tension. Wars and rumours of wars, famine and disease, are often passed over and a new phrase `compassion fatigue' has been coined. In simple words, people turn the page over because they cannot stand to read the same old story magnified, but Jesus Himself warned these things would happen at a certain point in history.
That mid-November weekend in 1991 was the time of the St Albans bomb explosion, and soon the cry of `Internment' was heard again. We had only recently been shocked by the IRA bombing of a hospital, and sectarian tit-for-tat killings in Northern Ireland were increasing. People were wondering how much of Yugoslavia would fall apart, and then came the news of the fall of Vokovar - and no doubt many Atlas's were turned out of cupboards to discover where East Timor actually was, unaware that this tragedy had been going on for years. And what else could we expect in Nairobi where the people had had enough of the corrupt regime of Daniel Moi - forgetting that his country had been supported by more `respectable' countries for several years! Zaire was reported to be ready to break open; Iraq was again reaching out to wreak more havoc on the Kurds, but the fact that Turkey was also fighting the same Kurds was quickly forgotten now that it was considered to be `a friendly country'. Libya, for a long time out of the political news, protested its innocence over the Locherbie tragedy and made retaliatatory expulsions. Japan's miracle economy seemed to be looking slightly jaded, with even more financial scandals, but at last had a firm new leader who announced that the world would see a new Japanese army assisting the New World Order which was being built.
No comment need be made about the Middle East Peace Conference with endless promises of an end to violence - which never occurred. In the former Soviet Union Mr Gorbachev had called a meeting of the Republics. Some came and decided they should be called the Union of Sovereign States (USS) but the Ukraine still seemed to be undecided about its future. Boris Yeltsin later fell into the same trap as Mr Gorbachev by sending troops in the same old-fashioned imperialist way to quell the demonstrations within his Russian Federation, in a tiny area called Checkeno-Ingushetia, because they too wanted to enjoy the much-proclaimed independence that Mr Yeltsin promised! Unfortunately as well as independence they had demanded a part of North Osetia, who had agreed to this provided they could join with South Osetia . . . who also wanted part of . . . and so on! This is to say nothing of the Tartars, who wanted . . . and so the story continues. (All of this has now been swept aside by events in the former Soviet Union.) Even the mighty Super Power of America is not immune, with the President having to attend to internal problems that are bursting out - the fact that 1992 is election year shows that even Presidents of democratic Super Powers have to continually look over their shoulders!
You may feel this is a cynical overview of normal current affairs and the reports that are commonplace in an increasingly busy world. That is true, but by the time this study is read many of these facts will be out of date - so fast is the rate of change! The detailed facts may well be out of date within a week, but the general trend is of a world in great turmoil, and maybe we too have become victims of `compassion fatigue'. This has become normal news reporting, and we can all turn the page over and eventually put the newspapers away and become involved in `real things'. And yet as we have already said, this time there is something more here which we have tried to describe as `excitable tension'. We are constantly being warned not to rely on our
emotions which are as changeable as the wind, and constantly changing circumstances can lead to newspaper exergesis of the Scriptures as we search the Word of God to find something to fit into the news reports. This can, and often does, lead to error in the Church, and as a consequence it has often damaged the witness of the Church, and as we are considering Daniel we need to remember what is written in Daniel 9 that: (verse 1)
" Daniel understood from the Scriptures, according to
the Word of LORD given to Jeremiah . . . .. "
Newspaper reporting changes like the wind, but the Word of God endures forever. In order to `understand from the Scriptures' we need to be aware of the excited tension that may well be reported from time to time, but we also need to step back from it to `understand from the Scriptures' what God is saying through what He is allowing to happen. It is our understanding that what we call `history' is really what God allows as He `works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will'. We need to therefore ask what is `the purpose of His will' and then see according to the Scriptures what is happening and align ourselves to the purpose of His will in prayer AND action.
According to the Scriptures God is drawing to Himself a people born by His grace through faith to be a Bride, an eternal companion for His Son Jesus, and to gather the nation of Israel into the Promised Land for judgement in order to give birth to the Messianic Kingdom rule of Christ the King. This is the purpose of His will running through what we call `current affairs' - history in the making, Of course God hates murder and violence, injustice and poverty. Of course He cares about the sick and the young, and He is working through `the purpose of His will' to bring about a Kingdom rule where these hurts and injustices will be no more. We have, so to speak, been `around the world in 80 minutes', and it then becomes impossible to see other than the general picture of turmoil and unrest. We need to come back into a scenario we can under-stand so that we too can `understand according to the Scriptures'.
As the Jewish community living in Great Britain and Europe is relatively small at this time, we would expect that the events happening immediately around us would be a message to the Church in those areas rather than for the Jewish people - a message either of warning or a message of encouragement for what is to come. During November there was indeed another news-worthy event being discussed rather fervently, which was the forthcoming meeting of EEC ministers in Maastricht in December 1991. There was plenty of advice being offered from the various experts. There were also well-meaning people speaking from their own entrenched positions, but through all the rhetoric and opinions there was the shrill voice of the Prime Minister of the UK with her warnings against a `Federal Empire'! We take the position of being a-political, holding no brief or allegience to any political party, but believing that God allows leaders to rise and fall according to the outworking of His will and purposes. We are therefore not defending or attacking Mrs Thatcher, or indeed any other political leader, as we believe that the state of this country is a direct reflection of the state of the Church. The Scriptures tell us that the disciples of Jesus must be the light of this world. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 5:14-16:
" A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they will put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. "
What, then, was the state of the country at the time of Mrs Thatcher's downfall, and what are we seeing in the political leaders of today that make it necessary for that shrill voice to call out its warning? (And if we can `hear' what is being said in these circumstances we may well be able to hear what God is saying to His Church.) What was it she
saw that caused her to speak out so strongly? What was it she said that
caused the `powers behind the throne' to consider it necessary to remove her - and we need to understand it by understanding `the Scriptures according to the Word of the LORD'. There has probably been no political leader to equal her since Winston Churchill, and she, like him, was the object of much admiration and much scorn; much adulation and much hatred. He too strode the political platform for many years, warning the nation of peril on the continent of Europe. Yet there is no `Hitler' on the European stage at this time, even though people are certainly looking for one to emerge out of the re-unified Germany. The main political parties are in the main commited to union with Europe, the outcome of which will be a Federal Europe - as defined by Federal Germany. We must remember this is also a part of the British Labour Party's ideology of a centralized Socialism, and they were in power during the formative years of the rebuilding of Germany from 1945 onwards!
Over the years God has raised up many people, Christian or otherwise, to warn the Church in England of the emerging darkness in Europe. Contrary to belief, prophets do not always appear in the recognisable format of Charles Heston with a bushy white beard, leaning on his staff and peering into the future with burning eyes! They usually appear in a very recognisable human form, but are still dismissed (as Jeremiah experienced) with the people realising the truth only when it is too late! A daily tabloid newspaper ran a banner headline the morning after Mrs Thatcher's topple from power . . . WHAT HAVE WE DONE? That, too, could have been a prophetic cry from a secular source which has not been stilled, for again we are hearing that shrill voice of warning still speaking out and generating a certain amount of excitement but having no clout for Mrs Thatcher has lost her power-base as the leader of the late party in power in Westminster. (Is that how far the Church has been removed from hearing the voice of God, who is still speaking, still warning, still trying to be heard, but raising only brief excitement?)
But restraint is still there in the form of a hesitant Prime Minister by the name of John Major, who is not entirely certain but who is nevertheless being pushed - will he, won't he? Will the Church respond - or will it not? Will we heed the warnings or will we be swept up in the `excitable tension' of world affairs? What are we, the Church, to understand from the Scriptures, according to the Word of the LORD regarding the times? We shall now look at the Scriptures to see what they have to tell us.
Many Christians will have rightly seen the hand of God in the momentous events shaking Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as tens of thousands of Jews are pouring back into the land of Israel in fulfillment of Biblical prophecy - and that miracle will continue on a rising scale! However, do not doubt that there will come a massive attack to try to stop this move of God to bring His people home. But how many, we wonder, have seen another movement in the prophetic timeclock of these events which will have equally momentous consequences in the immediate future? If we may quote the apostle Paul, slightly out of context but nevertheless within Scriptural principles: `First the natural, then the spiritual'.
We have seen the outworking of the natural as tens of thousands of Jews stream back into Israel. Now should follow the spiritual and its effect upon the Church. All reasonable people will give thanks for the collapse of Communism which placed such a yoke of bondage on the shoulders of countless millions of people across the whole world. Yet to stay at that level of thinking would be failing to see what has happened and the dire consequences of what is to follow. For that we shall need to turn to the Scriptures, and we shall be looking at the Book of Daniel, in particular Daniel 2 where Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar's dream of: (Daniel 2:31-34)
" . . . a large statue - an enormously dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. "
Daniel goes on to interpret this statue as being four kingdoms that will emerge to rule the earth at times set by God: (Daniel 2:44-45b)
" In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure for ever. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."
The Book of Daniel has probably seen more attacks on its integrity than any other book in the Bible - including even the Book of Revelation. Volumes have been written in an attempt to show that it was written as history after the events rather than prophecy foretelling the events. Sunday School teachers and even `preachers of the Word' enjoy the tales of the fiery furnace and the lion's den, which can be easily understood. However by chapter 7 the written word takes on a prophetic nature, which cannot be understood by unspiritual men who then have to criticise it, ridicule and disprove it. But the Word of God stands eternal and is oblivious to man's attempts to disprove it! Daniel himself said: (Daniel 7:1)
" I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. "
and later on he says again: (Daniel 12:8-9)
" I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, `My lord, what will the outcome of all this be'? He replied, `Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the end of time'. "
Now, with the coming of Jesus and His sending the Holy Spirit to those who would walk in the truth, this `end-time' is seen to be working.
Jesus, speaking to John on the island of Patmos, tells him:
" Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. "
And so the Book of Daniel is no longer considered sealed but is open for all to understand. The Book of Daniel has also come under fierce attack from its critics because it contains amazing accurately fulfilled prophecies which confirm that they are of Divine origin. From chapter 7 onwards the Book of Daniel records detailed accounts of historical facts which could only have been written under the direction of the Holy Spirit or by a later historian recording the facts after the events. So-called `higher critics' of the Old Testament cannot allow for a supernatural God intervening in the affairs of man and one writer, E.B.Pusey, wrote:
" The Book of Daniel is especially fitted to be a battlefield between faith and unbelief; it admits to no half-way measures. It is either divine or an impostor. "
Another writer, E.J.Young writes:
" The Book of Daniel purports to be serious history. It claims to be a revelation from the God of Heaven, which concerns the future welfare of man and nations. "
Jesus Himself repeatedly used expressions found only in the Book of Daniel, and in Matthew 24:15 He refers to `the abomination of desolation spoken of through the prophet Daniel'. If Jesus was mistaken about the calling of Daniel as a prophet then He could be accused of being mistaken about His own calling as the Son of Man, and so the attack on Daniel is seen to be an attack - not on Daniel - but on the
whole work of Jesus concerning salvation and is therefore a direct attack upon God Himself. Yet another writer, Erwin Jenkins, has said:
" The best proof for the inspiration (God breathed) of Scripture is prophecy. But because the Church has allowed false teachers to come in, prophecy has been neglected and laid aside as untenable. When this is done, the people fall prey to every wind of doctrine, eventually disbelieving that the Bible is the Word of God! Prophecy is the most sturdy rung in the ladder of the Christian Church. "
This, then, is our position: `All Scripture is God-breathed' - as recorded in Timothy 3:16. With that understanding we can approach Daniel 7 as divine revelation of things to come, prophecy, God's unfolding purposes, revealed to His servant and faithfully written down under the direction of the Holy Spirit. In Daniel 7 we again see the kingdoms of the world - already mentioned in chapter 2 as a gigantic statue - but this time they are seen as four beasts. Daniel said:
" In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were four winds of heaven churning up out of the sea. "
We need not search too deeply for the meaning of these 4 beasts because we are told in verses 16-17 that Daniel learns the true meaning of this:
" So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things. The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth. "
Again we do not need to invent fanciful names for these kingdoms as Scripture will always provide the answer. Indeed in chapter 8 where Daniel has a vision of a ram and a goat we are clearly shown the kingdoms. In chapter 2, where Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, he tells him:
" You are that head of gold. After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom . . . . . "
In chapter 8 two of these kingdoms now take the forms of a ram and a goat. In verse 20 the ram represents the kingdoms of Media and Persia that conquered Babylon; in verse 21 the shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, which under Alexander the Great became the third kingdom. But, as recorded in Daniel 7:19-23, he wanted to know:
" . . the true meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws - the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell - the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and was defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgement in favour of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom. "
The fourth beast, the fourth kingdom that will rule the world, obviously lasts until the end of time comes for them to possess the kingdom. The expression here `saints of the Most High' refers to the nation of Israel, and it warns of wars to come against that nation until `they possessed the kingdom'. This fourth beast is usually referred to as the Roman Empire, but its name is never actually spoken in the Bible, and in referring to it as `the Roman Empire' we can be in danger of looking for a re-emergence of the Roman Empire rather than what God was showing through Daniel. Undoubtably the fourth beast was seen in history as the Roman Empire - but that empire, which stretched over centuries, was a changing and developing system of empire which
Daniel describes as `different from all the other beasts, and it had ten horns'.
Unfortunately, most of what we know of the Roman Empire comes from Hollywood films which totally distort the truth, and in order to understand what Daniel was saying we need to put out of our minds the old Hollywood images and instead consider the system that ruled the then known world - which is actually still ruling the world and which will develop exactly as Daniel prophesied! It is different from all the other beasts, yet recognisable in its form and structure as the fourth beast that will wage war against the saints of the Most High.
In his interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the gigantic statue Daniel saw the fourth kingdom as having `two legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay'. Later on, in his vision of the four beasts he saw that: (Daniel 7:7)
" The fourth beast was terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns. "
Although the fourth beast can for convenience sake be called the Roman Empire it is obvious that we have not yet seen the fulness of this fourth beast in history. Again, it is obvious that the fourth beast, the fourth kingdom, is a developing system - developing over a space of time. First, it is seen as two legs, developing into a beast that will `devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it'. Next, it is seen as `ten horns that are ten kings' who will come from this kingdom.
Finally, we see the development of this beast: (Daniel 7:24-25)
" After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he
will subdue three kings. He will speak against the Most High and oppress His saints and try to change the times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time. "
Here we have the developing fourth beast of the four kingdoms of this world's history, and then: (Daniel 7:27-28)
" . . the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey Him. This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself. "
To understand this we need to look briefly at the known history of the fourth beast - known generally, but not Scripturally, as the Roman Empire. By the time of the New Testament period the Roman form of government had developed through five different forms of rule - from the Tarquin kings, beginning in 753 BC, up until the Triumvirate, beginning in 59 BC. We find these five forms of Roman government recorded in Revelation 17, where it describes the mystery of the woman and the beast she rides, which has seven heads and ten horns. This is the beast of the fourth kingdom of Daniel chapter 7. The seven heads are seven stages of government that have developed throughout the history of the fourth beast. These seven heads are not the hills on which the city of Rome is built, as is so often taught by Bible teachers. In Scriptural language, when spoken symbolically, hills or mountains speak of power and authority . . of rulership or of a kingdom. To understand Revelation 17:9-10 correctly, therefore, the reader should not stop at the words `the seven heads are seven hills', look for a city literally built on seven hills and then point to Rome - and in particular the Vatican - but the passage should be read in its correct context. And like all Scripture, the passage will interpret itself! (Rev: 17:9-11)
" The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven, and is going to his destruction. "
If the seven hills were referring to the physical mountains on which Rome was built, then, logically, five of these hills must now have been physically removed or fallen. But clearly these verses are describing five forms of the developing power of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, and John was writing in the sixth period of the developing fourth beast, which at that time was the Roman Empire with full imperialist power - or as John described it:
" . . . five have fallen, one is (that is, the Roman Empire under Caesar), the other has not yet come. "
And so with this understanding we shall see that the fourth beast of Daniel 7 is not the Roman Empire of Hollywood imagination but a developing form of government which has seven heads or forms. But in the New Testament times it was seen in its sixth form as the imperial empire of Rome. The fourth beast is therefore a continuing form of kingdom rule without a chronological break, and it has been with us throughout history since its commencement after the fall of the third beast, the kingdom of Greece. This means that we are not looking for a revival of the old Roman Empire - which was but the sixth form, or head, of the fourth beast - but are looking for the form of the seventh head of this fourth beast. For that we shall come into more well-known history and then see it confirmed in Scripture.
Daniel 2 refers to the fourth beast as having `two legs of iron, with feet made of a mixture of iron and baked clay'. In other words it contains the strength of iron but has the brittleness of clay, which is easily shattered. From this we can begin to see the development of the seventh head, or
form, of the fourth beast. The development of the sixth head was seen in the Roman Empire at the time of John as completely imperialist for it ruled the world under the total control of the Caesars. By the time of the reign of the Emperor Diocletian in 285 AD the empire had already
taken the form of the `two legs' of Daniel 2, with its two Emperors `taking the purple' and ruling as colleagues. This was done to avoid bloodshed and danger to the Empire on the death of an Emperor, but a complete break came in AD 364 when the Emperor Valentinian divided the Roman Empire into two halves, one based in Rome and the other in Constantinople. The fourth beast was now the two-legged beast of Daniel 2!
Developing history was from now on seen as a balance of power between East and West. The two `empires' move geographically from time to time as other `players' emerge, but essentially recorded history is but a fine tuning between the two legs of the fourth beast - with the western leg centered initially in Rome and the eastern leg centered initially in Constantinople. With the rise of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1453, the eastern leg of the fourth beast was removed from Constantinople, with the rulers and intelligentsia of the day moving nothwards into Russia, where they were quickly re-established under the imperialist rule of the Tzars. (`Tzar' has the same root meaning as `Caesar', and there was even a time when Russia gave herself the official title of `the Third Roman Empire'.) In the West the centre of power also shifted as Rome fell, and for a while it was centered in France where Charlemange was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 AD. In 962 AD Otto the First of Germany defeated the Franks and the balance of power then shifted to Germany and became the Holy Roman Empire under the German Kaisers. (`Kaiser' has the same root meaning as `Caesar').
Modern history is but a continuation of this two-legged Empire of Imperialism divided between East and West. Geographical and political centres may change from time to time, but essentially this is modern history where we can easily identify the two centres of power as the two legs of the statue of Daniel 2 - seen in the democratic Western nations, and the one-time communist nations of the east under the domination of Russia. To understand further the political will of this fourth beast we
can draw on memories from our schoolday lessons of the old British Empire, with the once-proud boast that `the sun never sets on the British Empire'! The western centre of power of the fourth beast in recent history was seen to be vested in the Great Britain of those days with the Imperialist rule of the British Raj - answerable only to the authority of the `Emperor' in London.
Today we are moving into another development of the fourth beast of Daniel 7. The next development must surely be the formation of a total World Power - Daniel describes the beast as devouring the whole world. Whilst it remained in the form of two legs there remained `a balance of power' between the two which stopped this happening and formed the basis of contemporary history (it was known to us as `the Cold War'). We mentioned earlier that many people have given thanks for the collapse of Communism and the break-up of the Soviet Union, but maybe they have not seen the break-up of this eastern Super Power as the fourth beast of Daniel 7 at last moving into its final form. With the removal of its eastern `leg' there is now nothing to stop the fourth beast emerging as one who will `devour the whole earth', and as Daniel goes on to describe its feet as partly iron and partly baked clay, we can begin to look at the formation of the ten horns which will emerge from this developing form of the fourth beast.
It would seem possible that the European Community is one of those ten horns which will emerge from the One World Government - or as a former American President called it, the New World Order. Europe itself has been described by many Bible teachers as actually being the ten horns of Daniel 7 - which makes it difficult to fit into the existing numbers of member States, with many others queuing up to join! But the EU should more correctly be seen as one of the ten horns that are
forming probably the dominant one, although it will undoubtably change its shape and form before it emerges as a fully fledged horn. One aspect of its development can be seen in the recent civil war in Yugosalvia, making it probable that a European army will have to be formed in order to deal with civil disturbances within the borders of Europe. This will very likely spring from the political will of the member states merging into one authority, probably under one king by whatever title he choses to use. A glance at current affairs will reveal several other `horns' of this development - at this point in time being seen as economic trading blocks, which are becoming more and more protectionist as they seek to protect the internal markets of the member states. On this kind of anvil we shall see the final ten horns of Daniel 7 forged.
We can also see it in the pressure being exerted on Japan to provide a military force to police the area now being vacated by America as it pulls out of its bases in the Phillipines. Already a trading block is being formed within the Far East by the `Asian Tigers', as they are known, and this pattern can be found world-wide as the fourth beast develops in the last phase of history. It will be a foolish and futile exercise to attempt to identify these ten horns because they will change their shape and form. We shall only know them when they are fully formed and are seen as ten kingdoms with economical, political and military power under an identifiable `king' - or whatever title is given him. First must come the full bloom of the New World Order, the fourth beast of Daniel 7 in all its world-wide power and exercising its imperialist authority. Now that the eastern leg has collapsed we have seen the authority of the western leg during the Gulf War, and we have also seen it in its insistence on the Israeli/Palestinian Peace Conference. This western leg of the fourth beast is now beginning to feel its authority - and is prepared to use it! But it will change shape and form yet again until the world-dominating imperial power of the seventh head of Revelation 17 fully emerges.
In the background the ten horns will be forming and out of these ten horns there will emerge: (Daniel 7:20-22)
" . . . the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell - the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and was defeating them until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgement in favour of the saints of the Most
High, and the time came when they possessed the land. "
These, then, are the times in which we are living - times the prophet Daniel saw in his visions and faithfully recorded, and then said:
" I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, `My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?' He replied, `Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up until the time of the end'. " (Daniel 12:8-9)
We are now living in the `time of the end', and we are being called to understand! We close by asking: Is God trying to warn the Church in England of the dangers of being tied into Europe and so becoming part of one of the ten horns, three of which will be subdued by `the little horn'? Was the former UK Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher for all her faults and political mistakes a true `prophet' who saw more clearly than most Christians the dangers that lie ahead in joining Europe? It will not be the first time that God has used a secular leader to warn His people! Will God move again through His people in England to save us from the impending dangers that lie ahead? Will He raise up another `John Wesley', who spearheaded a move of the Holy Spirit and so saved the Christians in this country from the evil that engulfed France and was also in danger of spreading throughout Europe at that time?
The voice of the prophet (if indeed Mrs Thatcher was one) is fainter now that she is removed from power. The existing Government is hesitant and indecisive. Is God perhaps trying to reach His people, so
that by our repentance He will lead us out of danger to become a light and a beacon to others in the soon-to-darken Europe?
