Thoughts Related to Daniel Chapter 12
It’s important to understand that Daniel chapter 12 is a continuation of the particular visitation which Daniel received from an angel in the third year of Cyrus the King of Persia (10:1). The angel seems likely to be Gabriel, though he was not expressed by name in these particular chapters. Gabriel had visited Daniel multiple times beforehand in the Book of Daniel. Everything in Daniel chapters 10 through 12 is one continuous vision, and it was the final prophecy given by Daniel which is recorded for us in the Bible.
The prophetic aspect of this visitation begins early in chapter 11. It is speaking to Daniel’s burden about what will become of his people in the latter days (as the angel told him it would in 10:14).
Most of what is said in Daniel chapter eleven was fulfilled between the time it was given and the second century BC. You can see Alexander the Great’s rise and fall spoken of, and then his kingdom being divided into four. It is clear that the two great powers which would emerge within a few generations from this happening would be Syria and Egypt. If you read the chapter carefully, these are who is represented by the King of the north (Syria) and the King of the south (Egypt- the prophecy is given in relation to the land of Israel which Syria is to the north of and Egypt is to the south of).
Chapter 11 eventually leads to the vile King of the north Antiochus Epiphanes (whom I just spoke about in the message on the seventy weeks of Daniel where Daniel 9:24-27 was analyzed). Considering that what is said in chapter 12 is the very same scene (I mean, which began in chapter 10; chapter 9 is a different visitation and a different scene), and the very same discourse from chapter 11 continued, I believe that the things spoken of Antiochus Epiphanes here at some point come to apply to the ultimate antichrist.
I think that Daniel 11:35-36 is the likely place where this transition takes place; and the reason I think that it takes place here is that it seems virtually certain we are at the end of time as chapter 12 begins (where the flow of thought from chapter 11 has not been broken). The connection of 12:2-3 with 12:1 makes this rather obvious to me (and 12:2-3 are obviously speaking of the time of the resurrection of the dead). And then what Daniel is told in 12:4 makes it even more obvious that the things just spoken of will not be totally fulfilled until the end of time. We even see in 12:4 a key prophecy of a mass increase in information and travel which will be a key aspect of life at the end of time. I don’t think that anyone living in Daniel’s time, or even anyone alive just a few hundred years ago, except maybe they paid really close attention to Bible prophecy, could have possibly guessed how great the flow of information and worldwide travel would have increased by now (2023- and who knows how much more these things might yet increase- look at how much they have increased, especially the knowledge at the common person’s disposal, in just the past the twenty years).
I’ll also add that I believe the destruction of the Jewish nation, and true spiritual authority being dispersed throughout the earth (in the place of the authority within the Jewish nation which was taken away), is what is meant in 12:7 by “when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” It seems that God is basically saying that His established worship will spread and be happening throughout the nations when the end actually arrives. This would then be a reference to the Great Commission; and it would have probably been a shock to the Jewish mind, and I think even a shock at the time to a godly man Jewish man like Daniel (who was in captivity at Babylon at the time, like the other Jews were in captivity, and longing for God’s established worship at Jerusalem to occur again- Daniel’s prayer for the suspension of God’s worship at Jerusalem to end was answered, but there’d be another destruction of the Temple and another exile where things turned out differently afterwards by God’s own design). I think that this would surely correspond to “the times of the gentiles” referred to in Luke 21:24. The times of the gentiles did not end with Israel becoming a nation again in 1948 like many believe (and that is because God’s established worship is still not yet centered at Jerusalem but rather in faithful Christian churches scattered throughout the nations). Israel becoming a nation in 1948 then is not the great event in prophetic history which the Dispensationalists would have us believe that it was (if it was even prophetically significant at all besides perhaps paving the way for the eventual rebuilding of the Temple).
I’ll also mention that Daniel chapter 12:2-3 and Daniel 12:13 establish that God taught the resurrection of the dead as clear as day right in the Hebrew Scriptures. Yet many, including many Jews, have said otherwise. Many continue to say so until this very day. That is unbelievable!
Aaron’s email is: [email protected]
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