Daniel Studies

Experimental prophetic interpretation    Libya, Sudan-Somalia, Iran and the Temple Mount events in End-Time Prophecy

 

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

16 December  2011

  

Caution: The exposition of Daniel 11 here is not the official position of the Seventh-day Adventist church in any country, in any of its divisions, neither the exposition of the host of this online site, egw.org or their affiliates. It is solely the experimental position of this writer alone. Caution is advised.

 

           Updating prophetic interpretation in Seventh-day Adventism means that more data or support is found in history, establishing a position taken by any or most or all of the pioneers in the past, since 1844. It also is the support of all those historicists since the beginning of history who thought in the same lines or who interprets prophecy and history as link to its understanding in the same way. Whereas Preterists link history to events described in the Prophets only to their time-span, Historicists pull those events and spread it out all the way to the end of time without limit, not recurring or recaputalization but pockets of events shown chronologically to the prophet until Jesus the Messiah comes on the clouds of heaven. What Jesus is going to do at the Second Advent, His crucifixion is the First Advent of the Lamb Messiah, will follow all the prophecies that was seen to happen in that time. The normal way for historicists is to wait for events to happen before they link it to the prophet, since history serves as the link to establish that an event that the prophet foresaw actually happened as he saw it. For Seventh-day Adventists the prophet is foretelling but for many Preterists (Protestants, Catholics, Judaism, secularists, nihilists, atheists) the prophet is merely forthtelling.

           Two principles are important at this point. The prophet foresaw and the prophet saw things happening in our own day in 2011.

When Ellen White wrote about the increasing role of the Roman Catholic Church in future in her classic Great Controversy in the 1890's, it was in a time when she was foretelling not forthtelling since her sayings were risky. It did not yet occur. The Vatican State was only established in 1928 and the memorial death of the previous pope in 2005 was not yet envisioned by anyone.

           So what do we do with the prophets? Is there no prophet who saw any of the eventful things that happen to us today?

Daniel seems to have seen it.

           Daniel 11:36-45 is called by Hans LaRondelle in his classnotes as a grey area. Why? Because it was still future. It did not happen in the days of James White and he wrote a small note cautioning people not to speculate about these events since it can create confusion among people. That is why we call for caution. What is going to be said about Daniel 11 and our own times here should be read with caution. Do not get too convinced yet. Give the events time to happen before one say anything. Wait and see is the motto.

           I have worked five years on the book of Daniel and many hours on chapter 11. I have consulted and analyzed the commentaries of Uriah Smith, George McGready Price, SDA Bible commentary, Mervin Maxwell, Gyehoon Shin, Jacques Doukhan, G. Pfandl, and non-SDA's like Jerome (Catholic), Slotki (Jewish), Herculus Pinti (Catholic). When they came to Daniel 11:36-45, they all became less direct, more general, proposing more, suggesting more, more opinionated, less literal and more symbolic or allegorical. We will try to avoid these pitfalls of these great scholars and dare to be more direct.

 

1. Not France but the USA is the next world-empire in history after the Holy Roman Empire that received its deadly wound in 1798.

Uriah Smith made this mistake. Others after him understood that Catholics who received a deadly wound in 1798 would recover and thus they tried to read in the papacy all the way to verse 45. Everything was read in the light of the papacy. This was their pitfall.

 

2. From verse 36 of Daniel 11, the description switch from the Holy Roman empire before, to the USA. This king with no wind-direction (not north, not south, not west, not east), just king, is the USA. Why? In Revelation 13 the second beast is the USA in Seventh-day Adventist understanding while the first beast is the Holy Roman Empire.

 

3. The king of the south in Daniel 11:40 is south of what? Shushan. That is Afghanistan. Thus, Osama bin Laden. The USA is the he that came against the king of the south, not the king of the north as many of the commentators suggested. McGready Price indicated in 1954 in this verse that there is an opinion by some in the committee that this verse is not bipolar but tripolar. There are three entities in this verse. This is our position. The USA from verse 36 will be involved all the way to the end in verse 45. That is why the USA came against the king of the south in 11:40.

 

4. The king of the north in Daniel 11:40 is Saddam Hussein. It also used a Hebrew form of the verb to indicate that the USA will be in his [Saddam]'s hair. What is the picture we remember of Saddam Hussein's capture? The CNN photo with the doctor in his hair. The USA fanned out to other areas in the area as predicted in Daniel 11:41 but Jordan was spared. Edom, Moab and Ammon is modern Jordan.

 

5. Egypt made peace with Israel in the meeting of Egyptian leader Sadat and the USA president Nixon in 1974. The USA bought the peace by making Egypt the second highest outside country to receive an enormous budget every year. Who's money are used in Egypt? The wealth of Egypt is related to the USA, we think, because of this important event. Ever since.

 

6. Not only Egypt will follow the USA, also Libya. So the change of heart for Ghaddafi came in December of 2003 and a meeting in March 2004 with Tony Blair of England, an allies of the USA. Since then the USA was in essence in peace with Libya. Ghaddafi's removal from power was done by the jasmin revolution through digital means, twitter, wikileaks, internet, facebook, phones, e-mails, and other means. The cardinal point is, the USA was an outsider in the disposal of Ghaddafi and change of regime recently. So was England and other western allies of the USA. They were sitting on the edge to assist if necessary or called upon, but the call was coming either from the Arabic belt or Arabs local. The strong position outlined of the USA in Daniel 11:40 against the king of the South (Afghanistan) and the king of the North (Iraq) is not applicable here in Daniel 11:43 with Libya. Libya remained friends with the USA before the regime change and after. Since March 2004 with Tony Blair's meeting, actually since the change of heart of Ghaddafi. It appears according to Daniel 11:43ff. that this position is going to stay this way. Libya is not mentioned any longer afterwards and thus it seems as if the status quo is going to stay the same.

 

7. The last part of Daniel 11:43 says that Ethiopia will also follow the USA. Ancient Ethiopia was much larger in zones from what it is today. Ethiopia included in the days of Daniel also Sudan, Darfur, Somalia and modern Ethiopia. Also these areas will eventually follow the USA. It will be similar to Libya. The Arab youth are tired of dictators, corruption, hate-speech, propaganda, economic suffering and wants to break free. That is seemingly the jasmin revolution.

 

8. It is in Daniel 11:44 that the Iran war is depicted. For a long time we are aware of the hate-speech of the president of Iran against Israel, Zionists, Americans and other words he is using. Something is going to happen that is going to anger the USA and get them out of their seat to enter Iran. "News from the east [Iran] will anger him [USA since verse 36]". Many people think that Israel is going to attack Iran. That may be but it seems as if the USA is going to be the prime agent. What is also interesting is that the USA is going to enter the North again. It does not mention a king of the East or king of the North at all. Why? Saddam is gone. For the USA to enter the North they must first go out. Are they? Yesterday president Obama was in Iraq to announce the sending of troops back to the USA, thus out of Iraq (15 December 2011). Will there be forces of Iran interfering with Iraq and fuse with them after the USA leave? Is that why the news from the East [Iran] is going to include the North [Iraq]? Who is this North? Here we do not know. We will have to see who the partner of Iran will be at that time.

 

9. Then we come to the temple-mount. Listen to what the Vatican and the Israel government said about a two-state solution and the temple mount:

"The Vatican wants Israel relinquishing sovereignty at the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. The Holy See uses the expression Holy Basin, which refers to the area of the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion and a variety of Christian holy sites which the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton began recomending be administered under a special regime". The Obama plan also calls for resolving the two thorniest issues in the conflict by sharing Jerusalem and settling Arab refugees in Arab countries or a future Palestinian state, but not in Israel. According to Obama, the Old City of Jerusalem would be designated an international zone" (Giulio Meotti, "Expose: The Vatican Wants to Lay its Hands on Jerusalem" Jerusalem Post 16 December 2011).

What Daniel 11:45 is saying is that the USA will come and place his tent [embassy, international peacekeeping force, army] between the two seas [Mediterranean Sea and Dead Sea], thus Jerusalem, and guard the temple mount. Those who do not know, the temple mount is guarded by Israelis on the walls but the space inside was allocated to Arab control by Moshe Dayan, much to the dismay of Jews later, after the war. Israeli forces kept the two sides, Arabs and Jews apart. It has not yet happen, but it appears as if the future is going that direction. It will happen because Daniel said so.

 

9. The Time of Trouble will be after that in future according to Daniel 12:1 and it is during this Time of Trouble that the Messiah will come, for a second time vertical from above with all His angels to resurrect the dead who were faithful in Him.

How long are all these things going to happen? There are other hints in the prophets regarding the timing, but that topic will just anger many people, so for now, we will have to leave the subject right here. The reader will notice that I have reverted back to Uriah Smith's literal method but substituted his France with the current Empire, the USA. What should we do in future? Spirituality improvement through a living relationship with God and careful reading of His Torah, Ketubim and Nebiim, law, writings and prophets, is what is needed. Preparation is a holistic surrender to God and His will. It appears that we have really arrived at the End of Time.

 

 

When a prophet sees the future events in pockets of events, just like Daniel, chronologically following each other, they do not suddenly stop in 1798 or in 1844 with a blank all the way to the Coming of the Messiah