AI-produced transcript
In the previous video, the first of this series on the Book of Daniel, we discussed the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had and how Daniel came in to interpret the king’s dream and explain to him the meaning of it. And I put forward the notion that the image represents the last king.
Now, it’s odd that, you know, the Watch Tower has interpreted the dream image and the feet of iron and to clay represent the Anglo-American alliance and that, that’s absolutely true. But my point was, why would God omit the eighth king that springs from the seven? Or in the case of the image, it springs from the five since Egypt and Syria had already come and gone.
Well, it doesn’t make sense. And besides the fact that the Anglo-American dual world power established the United Nations. I’ll give the Watch Tower credit for identifying the United Nations as this eighth king and the image of the wild beast as explained in the 13th chapter of Revelation.
I give them credit, however [laughs]… There’s always a however, isn’t there? Uh, it can’t be true.
And the reason it cannot be true is because in the 13th chapter of Revelation, John is presented with a seven-headed beast, and one of its heads receives a mortal wound. What appeared to be a mortal wound. It’s also called the sword stroke. But the head recovered. So, the Watchtower has gone into great detail to explain how that happened in World War I. Well, it could not have.
The United States and Britain were our allies and, uh, they were victorious. Britain suffered horrendous losses, that’s true, but wouldn’t we expect that if the head of Satan’s political beast receives a mortal wound, we should expect some sort of collapse? Financial, political collapse where a system of government doesn’t function for a time? But we saw none of that in World War I.
So, it’s in the aftermath of the beast’s recovery that it commands to have an image of the beast fabricated and then the beast, the image comes to life. Since the beast has not received the sword stroke, neither has it commanded to have an image made. However, the United Nations is/was intended to be a world government. Is it a world government now? No, because nations are still sovereign.
We saw a little glimpse of that in the pandemic. The World Health Organization, which is an arm of the United Nations, gave these, you know, lifesaving directions for vaccinations, social distancing, masking, and all of that. Uh, but nations could either comply with that or not because, so far, nations are still sovereign. And that’s really what the whole issue is about. The contention between the king of the North and the South. Satan wants a world government and it’s quite an obstacle because patriots want to maintain their country as sovereign.
Well, Jehovah has thwarted Satan and Satan’s attempts to tyrannize man under a one-world government. It began almost 4,000 years ago. You know, after Noah’s flood, Jehovah commanded the survivors to spread out and fill the earth. But Satan had other ideas. He raised up a man named Nimrod, who was said to be a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.
So, it’s interesting—the word Satan in Hebrew means opposer. And so, Nimrod is a mighty hunter opposing Jehovah. So, Jehovah told mankind to spread out and Nimrod congregated them with his grand building project to build a tower into the heavens.
No doubt, speaking to His firstborn son, he said, “Look, there’s one language that they have and this is what they do. Let us go down there and confuse their language.” Think about the power that God has to do that, to change the memory bank of, uh, who knows how many people, maybe hundreds of thousands. You go to bed one evening, you wake up and you’re speaking a different language. And some people spoke the same language, families, no doubt. But your family couldn’t communicate with the other family and you just spoke to them the day before. So when Jehovah wants something done, it gets done. And so, that’s why we have hundreds, even thousands of languages and dialects because of what God did to those Tower of Babel builders. So they left off building the tower, and Jehovah’s purpose was accomplished. Mankind… Now, obviously, Satan wanted to, to keep control through this man, Nimrod, and his successors. It would have been a one-world government but God didn’t let it develop. But God has allowed Satan to develop other empires that have controlled large regions of the world. And those are the seven heads of the wild beast. But still, we don’t have a world government. And I believe that’s where we’re going. That in the end, Jehovah will allow for a world government. And that means that the system that exists now will have to be overturned and destroyed.
Because in the 17th chapter of Revelation, the scarlet-colored beast that comes out of the abyss, representing the system after the mortal wound and the beast comes back from the dead, out from the abyss. And all the kings of the earth give their authority to this wild beast that it may rule for one hour. So the nations will forfeit their sovereignty and allow themselves to be ruled by this one world government. And it will be directly controlled by Satan, the Devil. And he will outlaw Jehovah’s people and make war against them. Actually, Revelation and Daniel coincide because it says that the beast will war against and conquer and kill the holy ones, those who are going to be part of Christ’s kingdom.
So we really can’t understand what goes on on this planet unless we appreciate that there is a war in the heavens, a war between God and Satan and Satan’s angels, as many demons, and the people under his control on the earth. And Satan will not be content until he forces Jehovah’s people to bow and worship him. Isn’t that what he tried to do with Jesus Christ?
It’s interesting. You know, when Jesus was baptized, he was anointed to be the Messiah, to be the king of God’s kingdom. And it says, “The Spirit led Him off into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.” Well, that’s interesting because Jesus Himself instructed His disciples to pray the model prayer, Our Father in heaven. And it says, “Lead us not into temptation, but protect us from the wicked one.”
So… But Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. Of course, Jesus was a perfect man. But after having not eaten for 40 days and apparently no water either, he was weak, and here comes the Tempter. And one of the temptations was Satan showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a vision. And he says, “They belong to me and I give them to whomever I wish. And if you bow down and do an act of worship to me, it will all be Yours.”
Well, how did Jesus respond? Thankfully, He quoted the scripture, “It is written, ‘It is Jehovah your God you must worship and it is to Him alone you must render sacred service.” And it says, “The Devil retired from Him until another convenient time.” So that really presents the issue.
Jehovah demands exclusive devotion because He’s the true God, and we owe our lives to Him and everything else that he gives us. But here is this other creature, this god who covets our worship and who has been very successful in deceiving mankind into worshiping him.
Now, it’s true there are some people who knowingly, wittingly worship Satan. Satan worshipers, whatever. But they’re a tiny, tiny minority. Most people unwittingly or unknowingly, worship Satan because they ignore Jehovah. And if you do not worship Jehovah in spirit and truth…
Well, there’s no other alternative. So… But it’s going to come down to a final test. Jesus referred to it as the hour of test. And guess what? The last king rules for one hour.
So, going back to Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar had this dream that Daniel interpreted, and it’s called the image.
And as I’ve made the case, it represents the last king. The image of the entire political system. Okay, well, flip the page to the third chapter and Nebuchadnezzar sets up an image on the plain of Dura. It wasn’t what he had dreamt. The Bible gives the dimensions. It was 60 cubits by six, so that’s converting to 18 inches. A cubit is, like, nearly 100 feet tall and, what, 20 feet wide. So, sort of like the Washington Monument, an obelisk, except it was covered in gold, so we can imagine what a glittering, shining sight that was. Very impressive.
And Nebuchadnezzar ordered all of the officials and representatives from his entire empire, some 120 provinces, districts. And, they were all to be gathered together, and it was a big ceremony. And the band was going to play, and as soon as they struck up the music, everyone was to bow before the image. Of course, it’s a great bedtime story. You know, everybody knows that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego… Those are the Babylonian names that they’d been given. The three Hebrews.
We’re not told where Daniel was in that scene . I don’t know. Maybe he called in sick or something, but anyway, they would not bow before the image. And, of course, uh, they stood out because everyone was bowing. You know, it’s like Muslim prayer hour. You would notice if someone were standing and everyone was… Had their heads on the ground.
So, they were taken to Nebuchadnezzar and he gave them another way out. He goes, “Is it true you will not bow before the image?” And they say, “Yes, that’s true.” He said, “Well, I’ll give you another chance.” They said, “No.” Basically, we don’t need another opportunity. He said, “If you don’t bow before the image, you’re being thrown into the fiery furnace.” And they said, “Well, if God will save us then that’ll be good. But if not, that’s okay too. Just let it be known that we are not going to worship the image or your gods.”
So, that image represented the god of Babylon—Marduk, the state, the glory of that empire. It wasn’t just a statue, it was what it represented. And the three Hebrews knew that. And they let it be known that Jehovah was their God, and they were not going to worship anything or anyone else. And you know the story. In a rage, Nebuchadnezzar demanded that they be thrown into the fiery furnace. They stoked it seven times hotter than it would have ordinarily been. And the strong men that bound them and threw them in actually were incinerated by the intense heat of the blaze.
And there, in the fire, Nebuchadnezzar said, “Was it not three able-bodied men that we threw into the furnace? I’m seeing three able-bodied men and a fourth that looks like the son of the gods.”
And it was the son of the God. And, of course, Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to come out. They came out and the hair of their heads wasn’t even singed. There wasn’t even the smell of smoke upon them. Jehovah had completely spared them from the flame. The fourth man didn’t come out of the fire, though, did he?
So, Nebuchadnezzar was humbled at that point and, uh, he recognized that there’s no god like this God that the Jews worshiped. He should have learned that lesson when Daniel explained his dream, which was humanly impossible. And none of the other gods could do it. The magic-practicing priest couldn’t get Marduk to interpret or to tell them what he had dreamt. Only Jehovah could do that, so…
Well, that was a prophetic drama and those three Hebrews represent the chosen ones who will be on earth when the parousia begins. And of course, that’s the central core doctrine of the Watch Tower, that Jesus became invisibly present in 1914.
Well, you know what the word parousia means in Greek. It means to come alongside. And there we had a demonstration in the fiery furnace of someone like the Son of God coming alongside those who have Jehovah’s protection and blessing, like the chosen will have.
Well, you know in the, uh, 11th chapter of the Book of Revelation, we’re introduced to two witnesses and they are said to be standing alongside the Lord of the whole Earth. They’re like the two olive trees in the Book of Zechariah. So, if they’re standing alongside the Lord, the Lord is standing alongside them. And his standing alongside them doesn’t mean He’s invisible to them. It means they will see Him and they will speak with Him, but no one else will see them. Uh, that’s why the Son of God didn’t step out of the furnace. Nebuchadnezzar just had a glimpse through the flame.
So, those who see Christ and who speak to Him during that one hour… Jesus said, “They will stand before governors and kings.” Not to give them a Bible study—to give them a witness. A witness that Christ is here, that he’s ruling, and they can either submit or suffer annihilation. And that’s really what it’s gonna come down to, isn’t it?
When Christ comes, that’s when the beast suffers this mortal head wound. The system will be…It will collapse and people will be terrified, panic-stricken. They will beg for the mountains to fall over them, as it says in the sixth chapter of Revelation. “Save us.” Any government is better than no government. And that’s because they won’t accept the fact that Jesus will then be ruling as King, so they will reject Christ and Satan will give them what they clamor for. Just like the Jews, “We have no king but Caesar,” and there Jesus was, standing right there, their King, and they refused to accept Him. So, Jehovah is gonna force this issue to a conclusion.
And after this beast comes back to life, that’s when it orders this image to be made. And what does the Bible say? What does Revelation say? Well, it says, “It gives breath to the image of the wild beast so that the image of the wild beast should both speak and cause to be killed all those who would not in any way worship the image of the beast.”
Well, those three Hebrews were as good as killed, weren’t they? The holy ones will be killed. The two witnesses, it says, are killed, but that they stand up af- after three days.
And the reason they do is not that they’re literally dead for three days, but Christ was. And because they’re in union with Christ, in the blink of an eye, they will be transformed into immortal spirits. And that’s what was represented in the fiery furnace. Whoever heard of somebody walking out of a blazing inferno? And so, they were immortal in a representative way, of course.
So, just because the chosen ones are killed, it doesn’t mean they’re dead. Paul said we’re changed in the blink of an eye. It’s not the rapture. It’s better than the rapture.They leave their body there, but they become a spirit just like Jesus. They’ll be the exact image of Jesus with the same power as Jesus, immortal and indestructible.
And the people that worship this beast don’t know that, I don’t guess. But anyway, it, um, this beast comes to life and it “puts under compulsion all persons, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, the free and the slaves, that they should give these a mark on their right hand or upon their forehead and that nobody might be able to buy or sell except a person having the mark, the name of the wild beast or the number of its name.”
Here’s where wisdom comes in. “Let the one that has intelligence calculate the number of the wild beast, for it is a man’s number, and its number is 666.”
Well, that should take us back to Nebuchadnezzar who made this image 60 cubits high, six cubits wide. That’s the man and it represents human rulership.
Now the Bible in Revelation uses seven many times. Ah, well, 666 falls short of that, doesn’t it? It represents imperfection. And so, if you just turn to the next chapter, we appreciate that having a mark on your forehead is not necessarily literal, because it’s… John says, “I saw and look, the Lamb,” Christ, of course, “standing upon the Mount Zion and with Him 144,000 having His name and the name of His father written on their foreheads.”
So, that’s contrasted with those who have the 666 on their forehead or hand. There’s no one really in between. You’re either gonna be worshiping this beast and the dragon who gave life to it, Satan the devil, or you will belong to Jehovah and Christ and his kingdom at that time.
So, I guess that’s about it. We’ll get on with part three next week, hopefully. Thanks for watching.
