Chapter Overview
A Pivotal Book
Not for Old Testament Israel
Could We Be Ignored?
One might ask, were not biblical prophecies closed and
sealed? Indeed they were - until now! And even now they can
be understood only by those who possess the master key to unlock them.
But we have reached the approximate end of 6,000 years of biblical history.
We have reached the end of an age! We are entering, right now, the
world crisis at the close of present civilization. We face, today,
conditions such as the world never before has witnessed. Today the
big problem is the stark question of SURVIVAL! For the first time
in world history, the weapons of mass destruction exist which can erase
all life from the earth. Chiefs of government and world-famous scientists
have been saying publicly we must adjust to living in fear of human annihilation,
with no solutions in sight.
To those prejudicially cynical toward the Bible,
I say: It is now your only hope! Science offers no solutions.
The politicians and heads of government have no answers. In the Bible
alone you will find the advance news of what is now certain to occur -
and occur it will before mankind blasts itself out of existence!
But another objector might ask, are not most of
the prophecies outdated Old Testament writings, addressed only to the ancient
nation Israel, of no concern to us in our time? And the answer is
an emphatic no! These scintillating, dynamic prophecies were, most
of them, never given to ancient Israel.
The plain truth is, these prophecies were written for
our people of our time, and for no previous people or time. They
pertain to world conditions of today, and could not have been understood
until today.
One of the very pivotal books of prophecy is the
book of Daniel. Actually, the prophet Daniel was not the author of
the book known by his name. The living God was its author!
The message was transmitted to Daniel by God's angel. Daniel put
to writing, to be preserved until our time, what he heard.
At the very close of his book, Daniel wrote: "And
I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the
end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words
are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. . . and none of the
wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Dan. 12:8-10).
So the prophecies of Daniel were CLOSED, sealed,
locked up until now! But today we are living in "the time of the
end." Today the "wise" do understand! But who are "the wise"?
Only those who fear and obey God - and who have the master key to unlock
the locked-up prophecies. God says: "The fear of the Eternal is the
beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments"
(Ps. 111:10). And even most professing "Christians" refuse utterly
to do that. No wonder they can't understand.
And don't forget, the specific key that unlocks
these closed doors of prophecy is the definite knowledge of the true identity
of the American and British nations as they are mentioned in these prophecies.
Stop a moment and think. If the prophecies
Daniel wrote could not be understood by him; if they were "closed up and
sealed till the time of the end" - till the latter half of the twentieth
century - as the angel said and as Daniel wrote, then they were closed
to the ancient Israelites of that day; they contained no message for Daniel's
time.
Think a little further.
These prophecies could not have been given to or
known by the ancient Kingdom of Israel. Daniel wrote in and after
the time of the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar's invasion and captivity of
the Kingdom of JUDAH, 604 to 585 B.C. But the Kingdom of ISRAEL had
long before been invaded, conquered, and its people moved out of Palestine
- transported as slaves to Assyria - 721 to 718 B.C. (II Kings 17:18,
23-24), 117 to 133 years before Daniel wrote. Years before the book
of Daniel was written, most of the Assyrians, with those Israelite slaves,
had migrated from ancient Assyria northwest toward Europe. How far
northwest - where they finally settled - was not then known. They
had become known as the Lost Ten Tribes.
But today we do know.
Today, as Daniel wrote (12:4), knowledge has indeed
increased. The whereabouts of the Lost Ten Tribes is one of the ancient
mysteries now cleared up. But in Daniel's day they were lost from
view - as if the earth had opened her mouth and swallowed them.
Daniel's prophecy, then, was not a message to the Old
Testament Kingdom of Israel!
Now think further!
Nor was this prophecy a message for the Old Testament
Kingdom of Judah. When Daniel wrote, the Jews already were slaves
in Babylon. Daniel was one of the brilliant young princes of Judah,
specially chosen for service in the king's palace in Babylon (Dan. 1:3-6).
Daniel's strenuous duties in the Gentile king's service did not allow him
to deliver this closed and sealed message to the scattered Jewish slaves.
In this condition of slavery, the Jews had no system of religious meetings
- no priesthood. There was no such thing as a printing press - no
way to print and distribute literature. And besides, the prophecy
was "closed up and sealed till the time of the end" - our time, now!
The book of Daniel was not a message for the Jews of Old Testament times!
Finally realize: It is emphatically clear that these prophecies
pertain to no time but to our time, in this twentieth century!
Then know this, further:
The greatest mystery book of the entire Bible,
to most, has been the book of Revelation. But the book of Daniel
is the key to the book of Revelation. And in the book of Revelation,
solely and alone, do we find the world events of all prophecies correlated
in order of time sequence. The book of Revelation, then, holds the
key for putting together all of the prophecies in proper time order.
And Revelation, too, was a closed and sealed book - until our time, now.
We realize that the living Jesus is the Revelator -and that He has stripped
off the seals and opened this mystery book to right understanding.
And where does that lead us? To the fact
that prophecy generally was written and preserved for our time today!
And some 90 percent of all prophecy pertains actually to this latter half
of the twentieth century. And the one central master key to prophecy
as a whole is the identity of the United States and the British nations
in these prophecies for today!
These prophecies could not pertain to any time
previous to our precarious present!
It may not be generally realized - but neither
Britain nor the United States became great world powers until the nineteenth
century. Suddenly, in the very beginning of the nineteenth century,
these two - until then small, minor countries - suddenly spurted to national
power and greatness among nations, as no nations had ever grown and multiplied
in wealth, resources and power before.
By 1804 London had become the financial hub of
the world. The United States had exploded out of its swaddling clothes
of the 13 original states and had acquired the expansive Louisiana Purchase.
It was fast sprouting up to become the mightiest nation of all time.
But Britain burst forth to greatness first, and until the World Wars had
become the greatest empire, or commonwealth of nations, in all history.
Between them the British and American peoples had acquired
more than two-thirds - almost three-fourths - of all the cultivated physical
resources and wealth of the world. All other nations combined possessed
barely more than a fourth. Britannia ruled the waves - and the world's
commerce was carried on by water. The sun never set on British possessions.
Now think!
Could the British and American peoples be ignored
in prophecies of world conditions that fill a third of the entire Bible
- when some 90 percent of all those prophecies pertain to national and
international world happenings of our time, now?
Staggering?
Indeed it is. And yet, precisely as prophesied,
Britain's sun has now set. As these same prophecies that foretold
Britain's greatness revealed far in advance, Britain has already been reduced
to a second-rate or third-rate power in the world.
And the United States? Today America finds
herself heir to just about all the international problems and headaches
in this post-World-War-II, chaotic, violent world. And the United
States has won her last war - even little North Vietnam held her at bay.
Many other nations sap America's national strength, "and he knoweth it
not," as God long ago foretold!
On the world scene nothing is so important right
now as to know where the white, English-speaking peoples are identified
in scores and hundreds of prophecies - prophecies which describe vividly
our sudden rise to national power and reveal the causes of that greatness;
prophecies that paint a crystal-clear picture of our present international
dilemma; prophecies that open our eyes wide to see what now lies immediately
ahead for our nations - and what our ultimate and final status shall be.