01: World News & Prophecy - Introduction to Daniel

[Darris McNeely] All right, welcome to the class here at the ABC, Ambassador Bible College. And for those of you that are watching this later, as it is videotaped and distributed, we want to welcome you to this year's production of the ABC World News and Prophecy class, which will be covering the books of Daniel and Revelation. So we hope it's a profitable experience for everyone involved. And those of you that are here in the class here this morning, this can be a class that can actually change your life in many ways and open up new vistas of understanding about the Bible, about Bible prophecy, about our world today especially, and helping us to understand.

Let me give you just a quick rundown on why we call this World News and Prophecy. World News and Prophecy, as you can see from the logo on the screen, it actually was a publication that the United Church of God published, I think, between the years 1997 and about 2010 or 2011, about 12 to 13 years that it was a publication of the Church. I worked on that as a writer and then one of the editors. And it was a publication that came about in the early days of the United Church of God as we were kind of forming up and creating the Church, and a lot of organizational matters had to be involved and taken care of during that time. And we saw that prophecy was a topic that wasn't really being covered. And this is in the mid-1990s, and the Church had gone through an upheaval and a change of beliefs, etc., which led to the beginning of the United Church of God. And prophecy was one of those topics that really had not been covered. And we saw that there were members that were interested in prophecy because it is a very key part of the Bible, and they were, in a sense...as we termed it, our sheep were feeding on bad pasture. They were looking at prophetic material from other fellowships that wasn't quite what we felt was up to the standard of the Church.

And so we created World News and Prophecy to do that. We wanted to provide a balanced, responsible, and a biblically accurate teaching about Bible prophecy and world news events, which is a long history and tradition in the Church of God of seeking to understand our present world, where we are, and, if you will, where we might be on the timeline of Bible prophecy, leading up to the return of Jesus Christ. And so we just gave it a very simple direct title, World News and Prophecy, and that began. And all these issues are still on our United Church of God website, archived. And I think, frankly, many of the articles that we published during that time are still fairly relevant because we sought to be reliable and accurate and balanced and not hysterical, alarming, or getting into predictive prophecy, or things like that. Bible prophecy is a fascinating, important, vital part of the Bible record itself.

Unfortunately, Bible prophecy is also a topic that has been abused. When people start to set predictions about Bible events, particularly the second coming of Jesus Christ, inevitably and invariably, everybody's been wrong about that. And we didn't want to do that. Nor did we want to get into a scare tactic approach to Bible prophecy, which would just scare people, the daylights out of them, with lurid scenes of tribulation and trial. We didn't want to do that. Even though when we go through certain of the prophecies, you will see that a lot of bad things happen to the world when God pours out His judgment upon the nations, and it's not very pleasant. We'll get into that in graphic detail in the book of Revelation especially. But to use that as a club to beat people over their head to coerce behavior, to elicit some type of fear response, or submission, or unnecessary devotion is wrong. And where ministries and churches and people have done that through the years of all kinds of faiths and religions, it leads to problems, and it's not biblical. And we didn't want to do that, and we don't do that.

However, when we read the Bible and statements of Christ and others on the topic of prophecy, believe me, we should be filled with a sense of urgency and, two, with an understanding of not only the world we live in, but also the inevitability of God's judgment that God's Word says that He will judge nations and individuals for sin, and that's part of the prophetic message. But if we have the wherewithal to heed that, listen to it in advance, change our lives, we have certain promises from Scripture that we are not going to be caught up in that. It can be even spared from, in most cases, from the worst of it and, certainly, in our own life, reap the blessings and the benefit of living God's way of life today. And we'll talk about all of this as we really go deeper and as I bring it out with the Scriptures. But that's what was behind the formation of the World News and Prophecy publication. And so when we created this class, we decided to put that name upon it when we combined Daniel and Revelation into this one class, and I began to teach it a few years ago. And it kind of keeps that logo alive and at least aware to successive generations and times in the Church, even though we are not still printing that. So that's a bit of the background to the reason for the title of the class that we have and what we are doing.

Now, let me move to another topic that I think will set the stage for what we are going to be doing here with the book of Daniel. How many of you have read the book of Daniel already in your personal life? Quite a number of you? Good, good. I think you have all probably heard sermons, sermonettes, or Sabbath school class presentations on some aspect of the book of Daniel. What would that be? Daniel and the lion's den, right? We all know that story. Or the three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, being thrown into the fiery furnace. Those are probably the two famous images that come out of the book of Daniel that everybody knows and everybody has been exposed to. There are other parts of the book of Daniel that get into the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel's own dreams and visions that were given to him about beasts, and a great image in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel having a dream about four beasts that rise up out of the sea with horns and heads and these fantastic images that are a part of it as well.

There's a very detailed prophecy in Daniel called the 70 weeks prophecy, which we will go through when we get to that, I believe, Chapter 9 and go through the 70 weeks prophecy. There's the very long Chapter 11 of Daniel, which is the longest prophecy in the Bible that goes into a great detail about history from the time of Daniel all the way to the end of this age. And so there is a great deal of prophecy. There's a great deal of history in the book of Daniel. You're going to be exposed in the book of Daniel to terms and titles and names that you may not be familiar with. We're going to talk a lot about Babylon. We're going to talk about Persia, Greece, and Rome. And I hope that you have at least a working knowledge of those four empires that existed in history that are mentioned in Daniel and have an impact upon the Bible story beyond even the book of Daniel. We're going to talk about individuals like Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, Antiochus Epiphanes. How many of you have heard of the name Antiochus Epiphanes? All right. A few hands go up on that. All right. You're going to get acquainted with him.

My point in bringing this up is these are places and names that you may not be totally familiar with. And I don't know what your history studies have been in your schooling, and I don't know all the sermons that you've had in your congregations where you've come from or your own personal reading where that might be. My guess is that the way things work today, not much, all right? But that's okay. If it's a bit challenging to you and if it's a bit alien to you, don't let that put you off or prevent you from applying yourself and learning, because all of this is a part of the Bible. And, remember, you have come here at ABC to learn about the Bible, all of the contents of the Bible, and so you can't just pick and choose. Sometimes students do that. "I like the Psalms better," or, "I like the Gospels better." "I don't like this book called Lamentations, or Jeremiah, or whatever. And they're just thick, and I don't know what they're talking about." Granted, my wife reads the Bible through every year, and every year when she comes to the book of Job and she starts plowing through, wading through the book of Job, she'll put her Bible down and look at me across the living room and say, "Why is this book in the Bible? It's just gloom, despair, and misery layered on in the story of Job." And I always tell her, "Just keep reading. Just keep reading. Get to the end, and then you understand why it's there."

But all the Bible is put together for us to learn, and it is God-breathed. And when it comes to the book of Daniel, we have a multi-layered book here for us to understand. So, with Daniel, I've already mentioned that he is a prophet, all right? He's a young man. When we open the pages of Daniel, we'll begin to understand. And he's a prophet. He receives visions, and he interprets visions and dreams. And so he is used by God to be a prophet. And he's actually included among the writings, I believe. I hope I've got that one right. But he is also a prophet. Daniel was also a...he was a citizen of the nation of Judah, all right? You should know that Judah was what? Was Judah... What nation, larger nation, was Judah a part of? Anybody know? Darius?

[Darius] Israel.

[Darris McNeely] Israel. It was one of the tribes of Israel, and it was the last remaining part of that nation of Israel. And so Daniel was of the tribe of Judah, which from, you know, in our popular terminology made him a...he was a Jew ethnically when we look at him like that. He became an administrator in the court of Babylon. We see that in Chapter 1. And don't worry about my handwriting. It's awful. I know that. Just take it for what it is, and you guys translate it if you're taking notes. But he was an administrator within Babylon, and then, frankly, he rose to a very high position under Nebuchadnezzar and later under the Persian king as well. But there's one other aspect about Daniel and his life that I think is the most important and will form the basis of really what I want to convey as we go through the book of Daniel this semester.

Daniel was a disciple. Now, you're going to hear us in the ABC talk a lot about being a disciple. A disciple, you may know from the Gospels, Jesus called 12 men and made them His disciples. These 11 of those original 12 became apostles. One of them, Judas, betrayed Christ and died, and they had to replace him. But those disciples became apostles. We typically think of disciples in that context. But the reality is when we understand the term and how it's used in the Bible, we are all disciples. A disciple is what you are right now. You're sitting here in class. You've come to learn the Bible. You're taking notes. You're opening your Bible. You're being taught by all of us here. We are discipling you. A disciple in another way is a student, a student and a learner. And in reality, we are all disciples. We are all learners. And we're students and learners for a lifetime. I am still learning many things about the Bible, about God, about walking this path, walking with God.

Daniel was a disciple. And I think that that is for you at your age probably the most important part of his character and persona to focus on and to apply yourself in as we go through the book of Daniel. Yes, he was a prophet, and he had fantastic revelations and experiences. He survived a lion's den and all of that. But the reality was day in and day out for his long life that he lived in Babylon, he was a disciple, and because he had certain qualities, God was able to use him in these other ways as an administrator and as a prophet to convey a message. If you will, go ahead and turn over to the book of Daniel and turn to the fifth chapter. There's a section in there that I have hit upon in recent years and make this kind of the theme of the book or, if you will, the big takeaway in the book of Daniel that we will come back to time and time again. And if you learn nothing else out of the book of Daniel, I hope that you will learn much more, we do want you to learn this.

This is the setting in Daniel 5 of what is called Belshazzar's feast. It is the end of the Babylonian Empire. The Persian Empire and its armies are at the gate about to overcome the city and the empire of Babylon, this great city of the Bible and of the ancient world. Daniel at this particular point in time has been shunted aside. He's already served Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar's died. Daniel's outlived him. And there is a king called Belshazzar, who's actually the son of the real king. He's kind of the coregent who is in Babylon, and he's totally clueless and unaware of the danger of the Persian army there. And he throws this huge banquet, which is described in Daniel 5, and they're partying. They're partying while Babylon is about to be taken captive. And Daniel's not a part of this party. And so they got music and liquor and everything flowing. And all of a sudden, a hand appears, a disembodied hand, and begins to write on the wall a message.

And everyone loses it at that point in time to see this, just as you and I probably would. Nobody can interpret it, and Daniel is called in to interpret it. He's called in because the king's grandmother comes to him and says, "Look, you guys don't know what you're... You can't interpret this. You don't know what you're doing. But there is a man back in the rest of the palace that you've forgotten about. He can interpret it for you." And if you look at Daniel 5, beginning at verse 11, here's what this queen mother says.

Daniel 5:11 "There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God." This is Daniel. And keep in mind, this is a woman who's, as we would say, she's not in the Church. She doesn't worship the God of Daniel, the God we know. And yet she knew him, knew his example, knew how valuable he was to Nebuchadnezzar and to the empire. And she says, "In that man is the Spirit of the Holy God." It goes on, "And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father," who technically really is grandfather, "your father, the king, made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers."

Because of what God had given to Daniel, and we'll read that especially in Chapter 1 and 2, in the beginning here, God gave him gifts, and that put him in charge.

Daniel 5:12 Says, "Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation." 

Notice what she says about him. He has an excellent spirit. That means he has knowledge and understanding. He can interpret dreams, solve riddles, explain enigmas. And she knows that this is of a divine spirit. It's beyond him, but given to him. And he served in a very capable way. Now, he did that because Daniel obeyed God. Again, we'll see that in Chapter 1 where certain foods were to be set before them as part of their diet, and Daniel and his friends say, "We're not going to eat that. Test us by just giving us a vegetarian diet," and that happened. They looked better and came out better than all the others. And God blessed them. God blessed Daniel and his friends because they obeyed him. They stayed loyal to that. And as a result, that obedience opened up understanding, knowledge.

And here is what is being testified, this is called a testimonial, by this queen mother about Daniel, who was a...remember he was a Jew. And in the ancient world, the Jews were basically spat upon from Babylon all the way to...with the exception of Persia, and especially by the Romans. They didn't like the Jews for any number of reasons. We'll talk more about that later. But this woman could not deny that Daniel was a special person. And we know that it was because he obeyed God and God gave him these gifts. As I read Daniel 5:11-12, and look at what it is here, what Daniel does with his life, I think, wow, I would hope someone who's not in the Church, a boss, an employer, your teacher, your neighbor, could say that about you. Can they? Can they say that in Michael, in Ryan, in Matthew, in Nicole, there's something different?

They may not even ascribe it to God, but they know that you're not like everybody else. And they also know that your character here demonstrates that. You don't join in with all the talk, the idle talk and perhaps risqué jokes. You don't laugh at those. And you avoid the office gossip. And you're not out getting drunk on the weekends. And, yeah, you're not keeping Christmas and Halloween and all that, the office parties or where you may work. They know something's different. They may not want to be like you, but they can't deny that you're honest, you have integrity, you're hardworking, you're reliable, you're a good person, good employee, a good Christian, a good disciple because of the way you live. And that's how Daniel was.

And when we read about it here in this story, at this critical moment of the fall of the empire of Babylon, the city, this personage, this queen mother comes in, and she says, "You go get him, and he could tell you about this handwriting on the wall." We'll go through that when we come to Chapter 5. I like this passage because to me it sets up the most important thing that we will learn and should learn and you should learn in our study of the book of Daniel. Yeah, we're going to talk about prophecy and history, right? And you may have to kind of put aside your prejudices, and I hope you will, about history because you may not have been interested in it. Why weren't you interested in it? Maybe you didn't have a good teacher. Maybe it was boring, or you just elected out of it, nobody pressed you on it. But I guarantee you with Dr. Dunkels being a professor of history, a PhD of history and Mr. Myers and myself and our experience with it, I think we can make it far more interesting for you than anything that you may have experienced.

I had a really... When I was a freshman in college, when I went to university before I went off to ambassador, I took an American history class, and I got a guy who made American history come alive. And he really turned me on how to teach history and how to love history. I always liked it, but I really developed a deeper respect for it. But he knew how to teach it. Unfortunately, not everybody knows how to teach history. So as we look at Daniel, what I want you to...we will continue to focus on, is his example, his example and his character. And with that, we were going to, I think, open up another layer of understanding. Look at this as layers. The book of Daniel is prophecy. The book of Daniel is about the story of Judah, the last part of Israel. It's about Daniel surviving the intrigues in Babylon and then the hostile takeover of Persia and office politics that sought to disrupt him and got him thrown into a lion's den, but he came out of it. So he survived all of that. And so that's another part of the story.

And I could throw in history here as well. Maybe I should because history is a big part of Daniel. There's a lot of history, especially when we get up to Chapter 11. But as we go deeper into it, maybe at the bedrock, if you will, of the book of Daniel, it is about Daniel as a disciple. And you and I are disciples. And if we look at it that way, then I guarantee you it will open up another dimension of understanding for you in the book of Daniel that will help you to appreciate exactly what we have, what it's about, and really how to live. We can learn about prophecy and history, but when we look at Daniel's example, it can help us live a better life today as a Christian through prayer, through talking with God, through a study of His Word, through humility, and many other aspects, which we will go through. Keep that in mind as the kind of foundational fundamental approach that I like to bring out here as we go through the book of Daniel.

Now, let's move on to...let's look at another question that I think is important. And all of this is kind of an introductory foundation part for us as we get into the book of Daniel. I talked about World News and Prophecy. What does watching world news have to do with the gospel? Why is it important that we know today the major nations of the world, where they are, what they're doing, and how they relate to the story of history and the prophetic timeline that the book of Daniel and Revelation, especially, give to us about history and how God is bringing about His purpose to the time of Christ's return and beyond? What does this... Why should we do this? Because when I give you a quiz, on the Friday quiz, there'll be some questions about certain countries, leaders, situations that are in the news, all meant to bring up your level of understanding and to just at least highlight the importance that I think is there that you and I, and all of us, be aware of our world.

And I like to say, and don't take this the wrong way, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and all the ships at sea, we are all born into this world thinking that the beginning of the world begins with the day of our birth. And guess what? There's a whole lot that's happened before we ever drew our first breath. And that's what education is to teach us about the human family, where it came from, and why there's an Australia, why there's an America, why was there a great World War II, World War I, and how does that relate to us today? And even ancient events that we'll read about in the Bible, how does that relate to today? We all have to understand that we've come late to the show, and our anxieties, our desires, our hopes and dreams, our frustrations, and everything that's made us into what we are, and we all have all of that plus many more that we have to kind of unpack and unwind, deal with as we grow up. It really gets accentuated in our teen years, as I well remember, not so much because I did go through it, but it's been so long, it was like 300 years ago that I went through my teenage years.

But I have teenage grandchildren now, and so I'm learning a lot, relearning, remembering a lot with my teenage grandchildren, okay? So I know the angst, I know the anxiety, yeah, I know the depression, and I know all the challenges that are there. And we have to rise above that is my point. As part of the coping to deal with it, we have to rise above it and understand our world. And when you understand it from a biblical perspective, which is what you will get here at ABC, then it begins to make sense. So what does watching the events of the world have to do with the gospel? Let me give you a couple of scriptures here.

If you will turn over to Luke 12, Luke 12, and let's...you know, the gospel has to do with the good news of salvation, the good news of Jesus Christ and of the coming kingdom of God. And so what does all this have to do with the gospel? Well, let's look at Luke 12 and jump into an episode Jesus was having with the Jews at about verse 56. They had come questioning Him as they often did. And in verse 56, He got kind of frustrated with them.

Luke 12:56 And He said, "Hypocrites. You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?"

Now, at that moment, they didn't know that teaching them, standing in front of them in flesh and blood was God. Jesus was God in the flesh. They resisted it. They rejected it. They couldn't grasp it. And Jesus is basically saying, "You're not understanding the moment." Without saying it, He was saying, "I'm God come to the earth, and you're caught up with a lot of nonsense."

Going on in verse 57, well…

Luke 12:57 He said, "You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth." 

In other words, they could look and see dark clouds coming on, "Oh, it's going to rain." The wind might pick up, and they would discern, "You know, there's going to be a really big storm coming. We better take shelter." Today we just pull up our phones and look at our apps today. We don't look so much at the sky for our weather predictions. He's making a point to them. He said, "You can't figure out what's happening right now." He said, go back to verse 54.

Luke 12:54-57 "Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately, you say, 'A shower is coming,' and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, 'There will be hot weather,' and there is. You can discern the face of the sky, but you can't discern this time."

We can take that, and we can say we should understand our time, all right? In the process of these classes, you're going to understand the first-century world. You're going to understand the world of the sixth century BC. But we want to relate all of that into the world today. And as we live in 2024, with all that is happening around us, wars in the Middle East and Europe, the rise of artificial intelligence, the transgender sexual wars that are taking place culturally around us, reshaping some of the most fundamental aspects of our life and of humanity, what does that mean? What should we learn about that from the Bible, from what God says about what man is, what's the purpose of our life, and where we might be in the timeline of Bible prophecy? Understanding our time, where we are in 2024, is what Jesus is really saying to us because He's really speaking to us through this word right now.

Turn over to Mark, Mark 13. We'll just notice one more statement. Well, two more. But Mark 13:32. This is in the context of prophetic events, the signs of the time of the end. And in verse 32, He says this, kind of a summation statement.

Mark 13:32-33 "Of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven or the Son, but only the Father. Take heed," verse 33, "watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is." 

And the time here is in relation to the events that He's already described of the end of the age. And He gets very specific about those. Watch and pray. Watch, in this sense, to understand. Now, watch has a multitude of meanings. We need to watch our own lives as well and make sure that we're living righteous lives. That in itself is a full-time job, right? But we need to watch also and understand, watch with a level of understanding. You can drill down pretty deep on that. And I'm a news junkie. You know, many people are. I don't have a cable subscription any longer, but I read a lot on the internet. And I keep up with what's going on, and I don't like to be behind the times. And you should have an appreciation for that as well, hence the world news quiz that I will give. But keep it in balance.

When I was your age, we had what were called spokesman's clubs in church. It was a men's speaking club. And they wanted us to subscribe to a weekly news magazine, all right? I don't even know if... The one that was recommended was called "U.S. News and World Report." I don't even know if it's around anymore. I think I did get a cheap student subscription at one time during that period of time. But that was kind of part of the course, part of the club atmosphere. And, you know, today I read other things, but I just like to know what's going on. I like to know who's the president and, you know, what some of his policies are and the different political issues that are in front of us and how that's going to impact life and all of that but, most importantly, evaluating it from a biblical perspective, as I know about the Word of God. That's what we should be doing. And that's part of watching and then praying thy kingdom come.

Matthew 24, I'll just briefly refer to this. We will go through this. You'll go through it in the Gospels class. When we get to Revelation, we'll go through Matthew 24 as we go through Revelation 6 as well. And these are specific things that Jesus mentioned as a sign of the end of the age, false religion, war, famine, pestilence, tribulation, and the gospel being preached. And so, again, what does it have to do with the gospel? Quite a bit. Christ, who came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, talked about specific things. One more verse here. 1 Thessalonians 5:1. This is the words of the Apostle Paul. 

1 Thessalonians 5:1 He said, "Concerning the times and seasons, you know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. Watch and be sober." 

Again, these words, admonition to watch with a certain seriousness. Go through life with a party spirit, party atmosphere, and we should enjoy ourselves or with our friends or families as we have festivities and holy days and 4th of July, Thanksgiving, things like that. But, you know, life isn't just one big party. It shouldn't be. There's a seriousness that we have to get on with life. We have to educate ourselves. We have to make a living. We have to be responsible citizens and Christians and disciples.

But that, you know, he's saying the day of the Lord will come quickly and catch you unawares unless there's a certain level of seriousness and watching and other things here. And so my question then is how do we, in the 21st century, learn to watch, to discern, to understand the times that we live in and the events that are shaping today's world? I think that the story of Daniel can give us certain keys and thoughts as we go through that to help us because Daniel wanted to understand his own day and time, what was taking place, what was happening. You know, Daniel, as I said, he was a Jew from the nation of Judah. He lived in Jerusalem. He grew up there. And he lived at a time when the armies of Nebuchadnezzar and the king of Babylon came and began to occupy Jerusalem. And he was taken captive. And his nation began to go, you know, into captivity. And Daniel had to, probably, I'm sure, ask the question, why? Why has God allowed this? Why has this happened? What does it mean?

And as we'll go through, we'll see that that's a theme that seems to come out as Daniel is praying, as Daniel is living his life. He's turning to God, and he's asking why. And so he wanted to understand the events of his day. And we should be able to understand the broad flow of events in our day as we understand the prophetic timeline that Daniel and the book of Revelation particularly give to us. So what does it have to do with the gospel? Well, it has quite a bit to do with the gospel because Paul talked about it. Jesus talked about things that would be the signs of the end of the age. He admonished us to discern the times and to be aware, to be alert, to be intelligent, to be self-aware of what's taking place. So along with understanding Christ as our Savior, the fact of His resurrection and His role as head of the Church, high priest today, His words teach us and tell us and point us to also understand the times in which we live. So it has quite a bit to do with the gospel.