Daniel and ISIS: quo vadis?

Koot van Wyk, Visiting Professor Department of Liberal Education, Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College, Australia

The book of Daniel has some identifications in the dreams and visions that Daniel had pertaining to the End of Times, shortly before the coming of the Messiah and Resurrection taking place, that may help identifying ISIS.

The current war with ISIS is a war between an Islamic Eschatological Millennial applicationalism and their “secular other”. The secular other are Christians of all kinds, non-religious people, agnostics, those who are not supportive in Islam of their millennial application of Islamic Eschatology.

Islam’s eschatology (or the roadmap for ISIS) is spelled out in detail by Thomas Patrick Hughes in his A Dictionary of Islam (1885) (London: W. H. Allen & co., 1885 at the article entry “Resurrection”.

Unless one is a Seventh-day Adventist, it is impossible to follow the logic of the prophetic interpretation of Daniel here. To say something of the history of prophetic interpretation in a few lines, all Protestantism were following since the Reformation historicism as method of prophetic interpretation except the Roman Catholic Church of that time who in the person of Herculus Pinti in 1597 in his Daniel commentary was using a preteristic model allocating the future to the past in the person of Antiochus Epiphanes. Most Protestants from all persuasions were historicists just like Jerome and other before and after him. For the historicist, the prophet Daniel saw history laid out before him in corridors of time and as history occurs in future, the application made sense. Knowing history is thus fundamental in understanding the future in historicist terms. The application is not locked in the immediate context of the prophet Daniel or in his past but in every generation of history even in unfulfilled future history waiting to happen. Because of this thinking, scholars after the Reformation came in contact with the year-day principle in prophecy, namely that when a day is mentioned in Daniel forecasts, a year was meant. Many scholars like Robert Fleming the Scottish pastor in his Eschatological Key (see online) understood the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 as 2300 years. The problem was when this period started. Speculations and discussions were set forth among scholars. In the book of Campeghius Vitringa, Hypotyposis published by Franciscus Halman in 1708 page 112 at LIII Vitringa said that the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 are not days but years (annii). A number of scholars expected Christ to come in 1836 or like the Lutheran scholar Von Hengstenberg who thought that the end of the 2300 days should be in 1880.

The Advent fever was all over the world, referring to the eschatological fever of the nearness of the coming of the Messiah due to this source Daniel. William Miller thought He would come in 1844 and thousands prepared for that coming in October of 1844 but when the disappointment soaked in thousands left the movement and Protestant churches were so angry about that news that they accepted Catholic scholars’ preterism as model for prophetic interpretation holus bolus. Descriptions of this process can be seen in the Calvin Daniel Commentary vol. 2 edition by Thomas Myers in 1880 (see 1948 reprint). Especially in the Appendices he described the disappointment and set forth the solution as preterism. Since then, Protestantism decided to shelve historicism as method of prophetic interpretation and adopted an idealism model which locks the Bible in its own time and uses it like one would meditate on a beautiful poem.

However, the Seventh-day Adventist church has kept historicism as their model and today only this church can answer the question reliably as to where ISIS fits into the picture of Daniel’s predictions.

Adventism was well under way with a literal interpretation in historicism of the book of Daniel chapter 11. Everything went well until Uriah Smith, one of the great commentators of Seventh-day Adventists came to Daniel 11:36. Correctly he understood that the papacy received a deadly wound by Berthier the general of Napoleon in 1798 and that ends in Daniel 11:35 but then Smith thought that the French regime should be continued in the explanations of the rest of the chapter. But it did not work out properly. Something was wrong. In 1950-1953 a series of General Conference meetings shelved the idea of Smith, according to the Daniel commentary of George McGready Price (1953) and unfortunately also shelved the literal application of the rest of the verses of Daniel 11:37-45.

For nearly 50 years this allegorical interpretation of this section was adopted by the church and great theologians and they were using the Australian Evangelist of 1949’s ideas, the ideas of Louis Were as Hans La Rondelle admitted in personal letter. The works of La Rondelle are still one of the standards of Adventism. Everything is correct until one comes to the last 14 verses of chapter 11 of Daniel. La Rondelle correctly called it the “grey area in interpretation”. That was in 1984 in his classnotes. The allegorical interpretation or symbolical global application of entities and regions mentioned in this text section did not make proper sense and still does not. Who is Ammon, Moab, Libya, Ethiopia, Egypt, the beautiful land in these verses if one uses a symbolical-allegorical interpretation?

In 2001 and later, it became clear individually to this researcher that the way to understand these last 14 verses is to deconstruct Uriah Smith and reconstruct him. Smith was right that it should be literal history and places but he was wrong in the regime he tried to identify. It was not France but it seems to this writer it should be the USA. The king of 11:36 is the USA as constitutional empire that is the “he” of all the passages of the last 14 verses.

In 11:40 there is a tricky spin in that people thought there is only a bipolar description of actions but actually it is a tripolar description of the king of the South, the king of the North and “he” which is the USA. The South seemed to this writer to be Bin Laden (2001) and the North seemed to be Saddam Hussein (2003).

So if the current Mid-east affairs are playing out in these 14 verses, where does ISIS fit in?

Libya is dealt with in 11:43 and as one can see in 11:41-43 Jordan and Egypt are friends with the USA.

It appears that the news from the East in verse 44 is Teheran in Iran that will disturb the USA and it appears that news from the north (note not king of the north as in 11:40 since Saddam was disposed of in 2003) but just north, could be the eschatological millennial Islamic pragmatic groups called ISIS.

If one looks at the article on “Resurrection” in Thomas Patrick Hughes Dictionary of Islam one sees that Islam has a list of expectations that should happen before the end of the world comes. That list includes the actions in Syria and Iraq and one should pay attention to that list since it is the roadmap of these groups.

Secular Islam feels guilty that they cannot participate with ISIS. The counter-action from Islamic countries are slow. Why? One must remember that jihad is actually holistic and expected from every Muslim. There are five or six kinds of jihad namely the jihad of the mouth, hand, heart, sword and so forth. A grandmother that gives food to a mujihadeen is participating in jihad herself. It is expected by all Muslims to participate in jihad. The amount of uncertainty whether this group is really the agents of the apocalypse that arrived creates a possible “wait and see” reaction by surrounding countries although they are in dismay about their modus operandi. If the group is successful and right they are suppose to support it if they want a part in the eschaton. So dragging feet is the name of the game and non-action is also a participation in the jihad (holistic view) taking place?

Why does young teenagers get caught up with this group and their millennial thinking? It is because they are the digimodern Islam generation. They were born in the digital age and browsing and surfing the internet they get updated with aspects of Islam. They are familiar with the End Time scenario thoughts of Islam as spelled out by Thomas Patrick Hughes and since their own parents in European countries are representing a secular stance, an accommodationist approach to foreign cultures and religions, they feel that the possibility exists that the “real end-time agents” arrived and as confused unbalanced youth in exile in a foreign distant land, they want to be part of this eschatological process unfolding since “heaven” is something they do not want to miss.

Many in Adventism do the same. They come to the understanding that the End of the World is very near and that Christ will come soon and the value of life in their thinking shift so that they give up all luxury, fame, honor, money, entertainment, pleasures and pack their bags to join mission groups in foreign lands giving their life for an eschatological cause. The gospel or good news has to be preached around the world. Keep in mind that ISIS plans to “islamatize” the whole world according to what one can see as one of the Signs of the End in the list of Thomas Patrick Hughes.

Adventists understand that everyone in the End will come to a cognitive “Adventist like” understanding and ISIS understands that everyone in the End will be Islam followers. Adventists want to sacrifice to “evangelize” the world. ISIS wants to sacrifice to “islamatize” the world. Adventists have a clear prophetic roadmap of events of the End Time, other than other Christians and religions. ISIS understands among themselves that they have a clear eschatological End Time roadmap of events that must happen before the End will come. One wonders if the ISIS groups think they can “kick-start” the eschatological End to come by making their eschatological deeds align with what they know of the Islam eschatological End Time scenario list of events.

How will any nation destroy a group bound to their eschatological list of events and commitment to it? Of course the modus operandi of Adventists and ISIS are totally opposite. ISIS seems to think if they create fear the secular Islam countries will convert back to conservatism and fundamentalism and will support them. Adventists seem to think that with love and compassion and teaching the Bible truths people will convert and align with biblical truths very similar to Adventism, also in a holistic way and lifestyle.

Adventism teaches that one should not smoke or drink alcohol and that one should keep the Seventh-day Sabbath from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown to honor the Creator. They should not eat pork and these days with hormone injections in animals for the butchery, they advocate vegetarianism. It is not sure if vegetarianism, non-alcohol, non-smoking is advocated by ISIS but the shocking part of their modus operandi as presented on the news media leaves everyone with questions unanswered.

The modus operandi of the Adventist eschatological End Time list considerers is pro-life trying to convert people on the basis of their own free will choice, unforced, respecting “no” if people so choose. It is sure that this modus operandi is spelled out by the Bible itself. The reason why the Catholic Church were the same as ISIS in the Middle Ages is because they did not follow the Bible (holistically but eclectically) plus Tradition and Decrees of Popes as their proof-texts. The end-result was (and it still is) a mono-religious concept that all should be catholics. Today that strong view is veiled by the façade of ecumenism in its many forms after Vatican II. Catholics were also pro-death religious fevered people trying to spread their religion by force (see Andrew Willet’s book 1610 online) for the quantity of martyrs.

The modus operandi of ISIS as eschatological End Time list considerers is pro-death trying to convert people on the basis of fear should they resist to convert. Whether the Koran spells out this modus operandi, only Islam will know. Is that why young girls from England are attracted by this concept regardless of this pro-death element in the modus operandi?

The gospel commission for Adventists is Matthew 24:14 that this gospel shall be preached around the world and then the End will come. A very similar opposite push-drive must probably spearhead ISIS?

Adventists link themselves to anyone who shares the same prophetic interpretation in both the past and present and future (the books of LeRoy Froom, Prophetic Faith of our Fathers emphasizes this. That is their remnant concept through the ages including the Old Testament era with the spiritual Hebrews. Religious “Israel” is spiritual not ethnic in Adventist thinking. They can be, and was actually, even in the Old Testament, made up of many nations. The key was the following of the Torah of the Lord and it still is.