In this episode, we review the Daniel 7 Chronology in order to show that the consistent theme of Christian eschatology from Daniel through Revelation is a Two Judgment paradigm. (This is not a reference to the Final Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20), but rather to the strikes of the Stone against the Statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

In the Two Judgment paradigm, a First Judgment is administered from Heaven against the Fourth Empire (Rome), destabilizing and fragmenting it to create the circumstances necessary for the rise of the Fifth Earthly Empire (the Little Horn of Daniel 7, the Sea Beast of Revelation 13), after which a second judgment is administered against that Fifth Empire (Roman Catholicism). These two judgments are consistently prophesied in scripture as

• a First Strike of the Stone fragmenting the Iron & Clay Feet (Daniel 2:34) and a Second Strike of the Stone grinding all the empires to dust (Daniel 2:35,45), and

• the Ancient of Days presiding over judgment from Heaven against the Fourth Beast (Daniel 7:9-11) and the Ancient of Days (Jesus) administering judgment on Earth against the Little Horn, and

• the Lamb of God opening the Seals of the Scroll of Revelation 5 (which are targeted against the Roman Empire, as we will show next), and Jesus returning to destroy the Sea Beast and the False Prophet, casting them into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 19:11-21)

Under this Two Judgment construct, Christ and His saints receive a Heavenly Kingdom during the Fourth Empire, during which Christ opens the Seals of Revelation administering the initial Judgment from Heaven against the Roman Empire, creating the circumstances necessary for the rise of Roman Catholicism, the Fifth Empire. Then Christ and His Saints come to earth to execute the second Judgment on Earth against that Fifth Empire, Roman Catholicism, at which time the saints receive their earthly kingdom.

The profound simplicity of the Two Judgment paradigm is that in the Fourth Emipire, Christ and His saints receive a Heavenly Kingdom, and after the Fifth Empire, Christ and His saints receive an Earthly Kingdom. Roman Catholicism is that Fifth Empire, thus distinguishing clearly between Christ’s Heavenly and Earthly Kingdoms, and between Christ’s kingdom and Antichrist’s kingdom.

We have included a graphic depicting the Chronology of Revelation 12 (as an example of John’s use of recapitulation), and a graphic depicting Daniels use of recapitulation in Chapter 7, and finally a detailed graphic showing the Kingdom Chronology of Daniel and John.

In this episode, we revisit the propensity of Roman Catholic, Reformation and Protestant scholarship to see only one strike of the Stone of Daniel 2 and one Judgment scene in Daniel 7—a very dangerous oversight of Daniel’s clear description of two actual judicial movements in each chapter, one against Rome (the feet of Iron and Clay) and one against the Little Horn (the Iron, the Brass, the Clay, the Silver and the Gold together). We then review several passages of Scripture that show Jesus’ earthly kingdom is subsequent to, and not concurrent with, the Heavenly Kingdom He came announcing under the 4th empire (Rome). Rather, it is a satanic earthly empire that enjoys dominion on earth as Christ and His saints reign in Heaven. Christ and His saints do not take on an earthly dominion until that Heavenly Kingdom administers the second strike of the Stone against the dominion of the Little Horn. Finally, to contextualize our study of the Seven Seals of Revelation, we visit the first five throne room scenes of Revelation and show that in those scenes, Jesus is aggregating to Himself in Heaven over time the community of His saints as the Jews, the Romans, the Devil, the Beast and the False Prophet sequentially persecute and attempt to mislead generations of God’s people. The first Throne Room scene in Heaven precedes the first strike of the Stone—the breaking of the Seals—and the fifth Throne Room scene precedes the second strike of the Stone—the destruction of the Little Horn, the Beast of Revelation 13.

We read and answer a listener’s question about how we can maintain that the 4th Beast of Daniel 7 reveals to us a 13-way division of the Roman empire. We raise four points in response:

1. Daniel did not say that the Little Horn removed 3 of the 10 horns;

2. Daniel only describes the final configuration of the first four empires, just as each was about to transition to the next;

3. The Scriptures show that the Little Horn could not have removed 3 horns after Daniel’s description of the 4th beast, and therefore the 3 horns must have been removed in advance; and

4. The Aramaic has no formal “past perfect” tense, such that “past perfect” must be determined by context.

NOTES:

The Verbal System of the Aramaic of Daniel.pdf

Council of Rome, 382 AD:

Therefore first is the seat at the Roman church of the apostle Peter 'having no spot or wrinkle or any other [defect]'. However the second place was given in the name of blessed Peter to Mark his disciple and gospel-writer at Alexandria, and who himself wrote down the word of truth directed by Peter the apostle in Egypt and gloriously consummated [his life] in martyrdom. Indeed the third place is held at Antioch of the most blessed and honourable apostle Peter, who lived there before he came to Roma and where first the name of the new race of the Christians was heard.

Pope Gregory, Epistle XL To Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria:

Wherefore though there are many apostles, yet with regard to the principality itself the See of the Prince of the apostles alone has grown strong in authority, which in three places is the See of one. For he himself exalted the See in which he deigned even to rest and end the present life. He himself adorned the See to which he sent his disciple as evangelist. He himself established the See in which, though he was to leave it, he sat for seven years. Since then it is the See of one, and one See, over which by Divine authority three bishops now preside…

Catholic Encyclopedia, Patriarch and Patriarchate:

The oldest canon law admitted only three bishops as having what later ages called patriarchal rights — the Bishops of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch. The successor of St. Peter as a matter of course held the highest place and combined in his own person all dignities. He was not only bishop, but metropolitan, primate, and patriarch; Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Primate of Italy, and first of the patriarchs. As soon as a hierarchy was organized among bishops, the chief authority and dignity were retained by the Bishop of Rome.

In this episode we identify the 1,263 1/2 day period from the beginning of the Witnesses’ preaching, death, resurrection and ascension and the 42 month trampling of the Jerusalem by the Gentiles. The duration of the Witnesses’ preaching, death, resurrection and ascension in Jerusalem lasted from from 3 PM on the day of preparation for the Feast of Tabernacles in 63 AD until 3 AM six days before Passover in 67 AD. The 42-month trampling of the city by the Gentiles lasted from the 7th of Iyar in 67 AD—when the Roman invasion of Galilee began, forcing the population of Galilee to flee to Jerusalem—until the 7th of Elul in 70 AD, the last day of the war.

References:

Josephus, Wars of the Jews

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews

Tacitus, Histories

Timeline of Revelation 11, including the impossibility of Josephus’ claim that the prophet preached 7 years and 5 months and was killed by a stone from a siege engine as he went about upon the walls of the city.

In this episode, we evaluate 5 mistakes that are typically made regarding the time period and identity of the Two Witnesses: 1 historical, 3 exegetical and 1 translational. With those mistakes corrected, the Two Witnesses are identified.

In this episode, we discuss the sign Jesus said would indicate that it was time to depart from Judæa—the abomination of desolation, according to Matthew and Mark, and the surrounding of Jerusalem, according to Luke. Under a Danielic construct, the abomination of desolation can be shown to have been erected in a holy place where it ought not be in 41 AD, when the Statue of Jupiter was placed in the synagogue of Doris. But the commentaries largely agree that Jerusalem was surrounded with armies in 70 AD. How could the gospels give two different signs 29 years apart, both being the indication that it was time to leave Judæa? The problem is that historically, eschatologists of every stripe have largely ignored what the Scriptures indicate about the identification of the abomination, and instead assumed that Luke was referring to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and used that assumption to determine the identity of the abomination of desolation. Based on Luke’s account, the abomination described in Matthew and Mark is taken to refer to something that occurred during or shortly after the Roman siege of Jerusalem in September of 70 AD. We propose, instead, that we should take our understanding of the abomination of desolation from the scriptural accounts of it, and then use the accounts of Matthew and Mark to understand what Jesus meant in Luke 21.

Show Notes:

Wesley’s Commentary on Matthew 24

What is the Abomination of Desolation?, by Daniel Doriani, September 4, 2014 (The Gospel Coalition)

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews

Josephus, Wars of the Jews

Tacitus, Histories

Luke 21, Young’s Literal Translation

Jeremiah 31, Young’s Literal Translation

In this episode, we give thirteen (there are many more) examples of invalid assumptions that inform many ancient and modern eschatologies, and the Scriptural answer to them. The episode serves as a summary of the first 21 episodes of the Danielic Imperative, and a prelude to the next 21 and beyond.

Notes: The Bounds of Their Habitation

In this episode, we continue where we left off in Episode 20 on understanding the time periods of prophecy in Daniel and Revelation. We provide a recap of the lunisolar calendar—its Scriptural origins, and the need to understand that calendar in order to interpret properly the time periods of prophecy. Those time periods have been given to us with the lunisolar calendar in mind, and the Christian must be familiar with it. We then turn to the “ten day” tribulation of Revelation 2:10 and the “five month” torment of unbelievers in Revelation 9:5,10, to show not only how they are related to each other, but also how they relate to Revelation 12 and 13. We conclude with a discussion on the “hour, and a day, and a month, and a year” of the Sixth Trumpet of Revelation 9:15 to show why we cannot interpret that period as a 391 year and 15 day period (as has been done occasionally in eschatology), and show how the “hour, and a day, and a month, and a year” are to be understood. In this episode we begin to touch on the seals, trumpets and vials of Revelation as a prelude to coming episodes in which we will examine each one individually.

When it comes to prophetic time periods in Scripture—at least in the historicist school—days, months and years are typically interpreted as “days of years” based on Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. Thus, the 2,300 days of Daniel 8, the 1,290 days and 1,335 days of Daniel 12, and the 42 months and 1,260 days of Revelation 11, 12 and 13 are all taken as “days of years,” just as the Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9 are understood as Seventy “Weeks” of seven years each. But such analysis is generally performed without knowledge of the lunisolar calendar in Scriptures or the principle of intercalation that logically follows from it. Without that knowledge, we are left guessing which periods are supposed to literal days, and which periods are supposed to be understood as prophetic “days of years.” By leveraging the Scriptural concept of intercalation as a necessary implication of the lunisolar calendar revealed to Moses, we understand from context which periods are literal solar days, and which are prophetic “days” of solar years.

In this episode we focus on the historical gap in typical eschatologies that are able to identify the transitions in Daniel’s vision of chapter 2—from Gold to Silver, from Silver to Bronze, and from Bronze to Iron—but are less sure on the transitions from Iron to Iron & Clay, and from Feet to Toes. We examine the Scriptural evidence to show that the period of the Feet must have begun in 69 AD, shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem, and the period of the Toes must have begun in 293 AD. We also discuss Daniel’s focus not only imperial succession, but also on imperial transition throughout his visions, and in a sidebar discussion, we evaluate the traditional dating of the Book of Revelation. By identifying the transitions from Legs to Feet, and from Feet to Toes, we can clearly identify in the period of the Feet the Heavenly Kingdom that was not of earth, and distinguish it from the earthly kingdom set up during the period of the Toes, that was not of heaven .

In this episode we highlight the Roman Catholic argument that Daniel foresaw Roman Catholicism as the earthly manifestation of the heavenly kingdom to be established by Christ during the Feet of the statue of Daniel 2, and during the period of the Fourth Beast in Daniel 7. According to that interpretation, Daniel saw Christ’s Church as the earthly successor to the Roman Empire, and thus, prodigal Protestants must come home to Rome to be reconciled to the Heavenly Kingdom Christ established. Many otherwise intelligent Protestants fall for that argument, but it is built upon an impossible paradox. The Roman Catholic argument assumes the Stone of Daniel 2 only strikes the statue once. Upon inspection, however, the Stone actually strikes the statue twice, and what Daniel revealed to us was not that Christ’s Earthly Kingdom was to succeed the Roman Empire, but rather that the immediate successor to the fourth earthly empire was a diabolical fifth earthly empire that citizens of Christ’s Heavenly Kingdom must avoid at all costs. Christ’s earthly reign does not occur until after the second strike of the Stone, and we are currently living between the two strikes. To long for Christ’s earthly kingdom to appear prior to the second strike is to long for Antichrist, which is precisely what Protestant converts to Roman Catholicism have done.

We have covered the Seventy Week Prophecy of Daniel 9, and we have covered the Leviticus 26 protocol which required the Jews to be punished for their disobedience, and further required that they be punished seven-fold for failing to repent. That is how we know that the Seventy Weeks Prophecy of Daniel 9 is related to the Seventy Year Prophecy in Jeremiah 25 and 29. But when did the 70 years take place? Jeremiah's 70-year prophecy is one of the most baffling in all of scriptures because the Jews were not in captivity for 70 years, the city of Jerusalem did not lay in desolation for 70 years and Nebuchadnezzar and his sons did not even reign for 70 years before Darius the Mede and Cyrus of Persia became kings after them. And yet Jeremiah said the 70 years would happen, and Zechariah said the 70 years had happened. With a little analysis, we can find the exact, literal 70 year period of Jeremiah’s prophecy from the Scriptures.

In this week’s episode, Timothy Kauffman continues with his discussion on the 2,300, the 1,290 and the 1,335 days of the 70th Week of Daniel. After summarizing our previous discussion on the 2,300 evening and mornings, and the 3 1/2 year period that was 1,290 days long, we proceed into a discussion the 1,335 days, and why there were an additional 45 days of difficulty for the Jews even after the 70 “weeks” were over, and the sanctuary had been cleansed and the altar had been rededicated. After completing the discussion on the 1,335 days, we turn our attention to Jesus’ warning in the gospels that the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel would return within one generation. The abomination of desolation was a statue of Jupiter erected by Antiochus IV in 167 B.C., and within on generation of Jesus’ prophecy, the statue of Jupiter returned to Israel, and from that point the situation in Judæa began to deteriorate rapidly, just as Jesus had warned.

In this episodes=, Tim Kauffman answers some questions from a listener about the books of the Maccabees and the historicist school of eschatology, and then introduces us to the concept of intercalation, the Jewish practice of adding an additional month to the calendar every few years, as well as the ancient Jewish practice of commemorating the Akedah, or the Binding of Isaac, or the “ashes of Isaac” on Rosh Hashanah. With these two key concepts of intercalation and the Binding of Isaac, we are able to pinpoint to the day exactly when the first armed conflict took place against the Jews and the Temple during the 70th week of Daniel, and with that information, we can show that there would have been 2,300 literal days from the time of the first assault on the temple on Rosh Hashanah in 170 BC until the rededication of the altar in 164 BC as prophesied in Daniel 8:14. Also, by understanding the concept of intercalation, we are able to show why a 3 1/2 year period in Daniel 12:7 is described as 1,290 days in Daniel 12:11, instead of the 1,260 as we might have expected. Using this information we are able to show that Antiochus the IV's decree to forbid sacrifices to anyone else but Jupiter would have occurred on the Ides of June, the Festival of Jupiter Invictus, in 167 BC., 1290 days prior to the rededication of the temple.

This week Tim Kauffman walks us through the final week of Gabriel’s prophecy, showing that the Seventieth Week of Daniel was to follow the Sixty Two weeks, just as Gabriel prophesied, rather than following the Sixty Nine Weeks as is traditionally assumed. Tim Kauffman walks us through the seven year confirmation of a covenant between the Jews and the gentiles, during which the people, the city and the sanctuary in Jerusalem were re-desolated, including a decree in the middle of the week prohibiting sacrifices, and finally, the recovery of the Temple Mount by the Jews, followed by the cleansing of the sanctuary in accordance with Daniel 8:14 and the rededication and anointing of the “most holy”—the altar—in accordance with Daniel 9:24 and the Lord’s instructions in Ezekiel 43. All of this happened under the old covenant in a Mosaic, Levitical context, just as Daniel foretold.

In addition to Tim Kauffman’s teaching here we would also like to recommend his blog Out of His Mouth to our listeners.

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This week Tim Kauffman walks us through the Seventy Weeks prophecy in Daniel 9 showing that Gabriel actually states that the Seventy Weeks are cut up, or divided, and then proceeds to describe them as cut up and divided into three separate sets of Weeks. Historically, eschatologists have tried to put the sevens back together again to make them fit Christ, but instead we ought to do as Gabriel did, which is leave them cut up. When we cut them up the way Gabriel did, we find that each set of weeks has its own starting point and its own fulfillment under the Mosaic covenant, ultimately leading us to the identification of the Abomination of Desolation that Jesus said would return within one generation as a sign of Jerusalem’s impending destruction. In addition to Tim Kauffman’s teaching here we would also like to recommend his blog Out of His Mouth to our listeners.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Email us at semper.reformanda.radio@gmail.com.

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Join Tim Shaughnessy and Tim Kauffman for this weeks episode of Semper Reformanda Radio as Tim Kauffman leads us once again in our discussion on eschatology. In addition to Tim Kauffman’s teaching here we would also like to recommend his blog Out of His Mouth to our listeners.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Email us at semper.reformanda.radio@gmail.com.

Check out the Semper Reformanda Radio blog

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Join Tim Shaughnessy and Tim Kauffman for this weeks episode of Semper Reformanda Radio as Tim Kauffman leads us once again in our discussion on eschatology.

In addition to Tim Kauffman’s teaching here we would also like to recommend his blog Out of His Mouth to our listeners.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Email us at semper.reformanda.radio@gmail.com.

Check out the Semper Reformanda Radio blog

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Join Tim Shaughnessy and Tim Kauffman for this weeks episode of Semper Reformanda Radio as Tim Kauffman leads us once again in our discussion on eschatology. Our text for this week is Jeremiah 24:5-7.

5 "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. 

In addition to Tim Kauffman’s teaching here we would also like to recommend his blog Out of His Mouth to our listeners.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Email us at semper.reformanda.radio@gmail.com.

Check out the Semper Reformanda Radio blog

Rate and Review us on iTunes