There are controversies about this last vision of Daniel; heresies and fanaticisms within Adventism that are based upon a misunderstanding of this vision of Daniel. Also, there are truths and understandings of these last chapters that are not fully recognised by God’s people, designed by God to help finish the work when they are correctly understood.

I’m going to do the introduction to this study in a very straight-forward manner without giving references or back-ups for the points that I’m making. I want to set forth some of these themes here in the first study, and we’ll touch on these as we go through these three chapters in a very systematic fashion in the following studies.

The last three chapters of Daniel’s book is not simply the climax or conclusion; in many ways it is the foundation for the book of Daniel. I know it’s backwards to say the climax or conclusion is the foundation, but there are many prophetic truths established in this last vision of Daniel, that although inferred or briefly set forward earlier in Daniel, it’s in these chapters where they’re really brought into focus.

We’ll start in chapter 10 and give an overview of what seems important. Later we’ll attempt to demonstrate why, by defence from Bible and Spirit of Prophecy. There are so many items that need to be addressed, but to take time to really prove them in the first presentation is beyond the scope of an hour. So I’m going to speak from my heart on these things, and we’ll defend the premises later on.

In Daniel chapter 10:1 we’re told there was a thing that was revealed to Daniel that was true, and that the time appointed connected with this thing, whatever it is, was long. Daniel understood the thing and he had understanding of the vision.

Daniel gives an understanding here of the following three chapters in Daniel and there are things that happened in leading into actual vision, that are taken up in earnest in chapter 11. We see Daniel in verse 2 and 3 fasting for twenty-one days and in verse 4 we see that he is receiving this vision by the Hedekel or Euphrates River.

He looks up in verse 5 and beholds a certain man clothed in linen. This is Daniel’s confrontation with Jesus Christ. Sister White is quite clear that this figure that Daniel sees clothed in linen is Christ and He’s very similar to what John the Revelator sees when he sees Christ in Revelation.

In verse 7, the men that were with Daniel when he sees this vision of Jesus Christ, a great quaking falls upon them and they flee and hide themselves. In verse 8 he’s left alone when he sees this great vision, and there remained no strength in him.

We’re told in the Spirit of Prophecy that when we study prophecy, we’re to consider circumstances and every fact has its bearing. When she’s talking about considering the circumstances, not only are we to look at the information contained in the dream or vision given to the prophet but we’re also to look at the circumstances surrounding the prophet when the dream or vision comes.

Not simply the vision, but the environment and not just the immediate environment, not just where the prophet is, but even the historical environment that’s taking place during the time when the prophet receives the vision or dream. That is also to be factored in to the correct understanding of the vision.

I would suggest here that one of the things in these chapters worthy of seeing is that Daniel in this vision is symbolizing God’s people at the end of the world. You may be asking why this is valid, but this is a very traditional understanding in Adventism. I’m sure if you’ve been in Adventism very long, you have heard sermons or read things that take you to chapter one and see the test that Daniel and the three worthies had over the health message and apply it to God’s people at the end of the world. If you are going to be among those that Daniel and the worthies symbolize, the foundation of the experience symbolized by those four is an agreement to the health message.

It is pretty standard understanding that Daniel and the three worthies in the book of Daniel symbolize God’s people here at the end of the world. Certainly the story of Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego and the fiery furnace represent God’s people at the end of the world. Many, many times Sister White uses the test of Nebuchadnezzar’s image on the plains of Dura as symbolizing the Sunday Law. Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego therefore are representing God’s people during the time of the Sunday Law. I would suggest that not only are they symbolizing God’s people, but they’re symbolizing a special manifestation of God’s people which we as Seventh-day Adventists understand as the 144,000.

Taking it up a notch I would say that Daniel in chapter 1 is showing in his upholding the health message that the right arm, the strength of his experience as one that symbolizes the 144,000, is the health message. Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego and the fiery furnace is showing the crisis that the 144,000 are going to be brought into. There are many other things that you can identify with this; Daniel in the lion’s den, once again the 144,000 during the time when persecution is taking place, because of worship.

All these stories in the book of Daniel show us how we are to live at the end of the world. There are two teachings in the book of Daniel; one is Daniel and the 3 worthies are identifying how we are to live at the end of the world or how the 144,000 will live at the end of the world and that’s a theme in the book of Daniel.

At the same time you have the visions and the information contained in the book of Daniel telling us what will take place at the end of the world. So you have the vision identifying what will take place and the experience of Daniel and his friends, identifying how God’s people are to walk during the time period when these end time events are taking place. So there’s a two-fold theme that runs through the entire book of Daniel and when you come to 10 and onward, I believe that you need to factor in that Daniel is, in this vision symbolizing the 144,000.

In previous studies, particularly when we looked at Gideon, before Gideon, a symbol of the 144,000, began his work that was prefiguring the final work on earth during the later rain time period, he had a confrontation with the Angel and the Angel was none other than Christ. We’re under conviction that the 144,000, those of us that strive for that and ultimately accomplish that goal, will have had to have a personal revelation, a personal confrontation, a personal genuine experience with Jesus Christ.

In chapter 10, Daniel is also being illustrated in this situation. On the subject of Daniel, seeing Christ at the very opening of chapter 10, there is not a great deal of implication about why Daniel needed to see Christ here. What was the purpose of Daniel recognizing Jesus Christ as the man clothed in linen, girded with fine gold, face with appearance as lightening?

The confrontation that Daniel has here with Christ in verses 5 & 6 is not directly related to the vision of the flow of kingdoms that is taken up as chapters 11 &12 unfold. Perhaps the most important reason that Daniel has this confrontation with Christ in these four verses is that Daniel is setting forth an example of what will have to take place with those who are among the 144,000. We are each going to have to have a personal confrontation in a positive way, a personal revelation of Jesus Christ. I believe you can see this illustrated in other places in the scriptures.

"Read the book of Daniel. Call up, point by point, the history of the kingdoms there represented. Behold statesmen, councils, powerful armies, and see how God wrought to abase the pride of men, and lay human glory in the dust. God alone is represented as great. In the vision of the prophet He is seen casting down one mighty ruler and setting up another. He is revealed as the monarch of the universe, about to set up His everlasting kingdom--the Ancient of days, the living God, the Source of all wisdom, the Ruler of the present, the Revealer of the future. Read and understand how poor, how frail, how short-lived, how erring, how guilty, is man in lifting up his soul unto vanity." {16MR 333.3}

When Daniel sees Christ here, that work of laying man’s glory in the dust is illustrated. He has the revelation of Jesus Christ and he’s humbled in the dust, The glory that Daniel may have had as a human being, the glory that he thought about himself is totally removed all his comeliness was turned into corruption, verse 8 says and I would suggest to you that this vision that Daniel sees right here at the opening and then the response of his humanity being totally turned into corruption is illustrating the experience of the 144,000. All of our humanity is going to have to be laid at the foot of the cross through the power of the Holy Spirit, so the Lord can empower us to follow Him wherever He may go.

Why am I emphasizing this? This isn’t a minor theme from my understanding. I have a friend, a very powerful evangelist, and recently we were working together at a campmeeting in South America and after some meetings one night where we’d been sharing prophecies to about 4-500 people we got into a discussion. He told me this story:

There was a time when he believed the time prophecies at the end of time were to be applied at the end of the world. He never preached it, he never taught it but he did discuss that possibility in the congregation more than once with kind of an open mind about it. Then he realized through his studies that was incorrect, that it was fanaticism and something that the Spirit of Prophecy opposed. The pioneers’ understanding of Daniel 12 was that all those time prophecies came to a conclusion by 1844 and they were correct. he told me that even though he knew by faith that Daniel 12’s time prophecies were fulfilled by 1844 and the would not be re-applied at the end of the world, he never had the understanding or the ability to identify the 1335 in such a way as to use it in evangelistic series.

When he was doing evangelism and came to Daniel 12, he very quickly passed over that because he understood it was true based on the historical evidence, yes the pioneers were true, but he didn’t understand the implications enough to share with conviction that it was an important and relevant point for evangelism. So he asked me to please take the time and explain how you understand the 1335, why is that a point that is relevant?"

Briefly I’ll give you my answer:

The 1335 days of Daniel 12:12, the pioneers understood came to fulfilment in 1843. So why is it a blessing to reach 1843? One of the things in Adventism that doesn’t seem to be dwelt on enough, is the roll that God’s church plays at the end of time. I’m not so much speaking of the church militant, where the wheat and tares are together still struggling. But there comes a time where God’s church is purified, this is touched upon throughout the prophets of the Bible,

When God’s church is purified, some of the passages give more specific information about the members of the church and this is where the understanding of the 144,000 comes in. The reality of scripture for me is that at a time period in history, God intended to raise up the 144,000 to finish the work and go home. Not only had God spoken about the church triumphant throughout scriptures, but He actually identified in Bible prophecy when the time would come when God was going to begin to raise up this body of people that we call the 144,000 from Revelation 7.

The process that brings the 144,000 together began in earnest in 1843. And if you go back and look at what took place in 1843, the first disappointment that took place prior to the great disappointment of October 22, 1844. Sister White is specific on this subject; that 1^st disappointment was designed by God in the same way as the test of Gideon’s men was designed by God. It was a test that was to purify a people and remove some of the dross from the gold that the Lord was about to develop in the 144,000.

During the 1843 to October 22, 1844 time period, Sister White is clear that this was a testing process that the Lord ordained. He held His hand over that mistake in order for people to be tested. It took the Millerite movement, the most significant religious movement since the Protestant reformation, estimated at 50,000 people and it fizzled down to 50 people at the Great Disappointment.

This pruning process began in 1843. Spirit of Prophecy tells us that had those people on October 23^rd 1844, followed on by faith and continued to follow the light, they would have finished the work and went home immediately thereafter. There was the potential prophetically for God’s people to fulfill the prophecies and the end to come. Now we know it didn’t happen. We know that some prophecy is conditional and due to insubordination, this didn’t come to pass. Nevertheless, as we look at the testimony, the potential for the 144,000 to be developed in 1844 and immediately thereafter was there.

1843, is a blessed year, it was the time when God said, "All right, this is the point in history when I will develop this people that we call the 144,000." That’s why it says ‘blessed is he who arrives to 1843.’

With the wandering in the wilderness which Adventism has done since that time, it’s hard to factor in conditional prophecy and see all that. But Sister White speaks about that time period and she says that all that participated in that particular time can still remember the holiness, the sacredness, of that time period. It was something that was taking place that impacted the faithful followers at that time for the rest of their lives. It was such a holy experience that it wasn’t lost by those who participated in it. Sister White noted it because that holy experience that the Lord began, through a process of purifying that movement, had the potential to produce the 144,000.

Now when you go back to Daniel 10, and you see Daniel having the revelation of Jesus Christ, being humbled in the dust, before he begins to see the information of Daniel 11 and onward, it puts a theme in these last three chapters that I believe is commonly missed in this study. These chapters are speaking, among other things, about the church triumphant, the 144,000. If you don’t see that theme, then it’s very difficult to see the significance of the 1335 in Daniel 12. Also for me, it’s difficult to see what the purpose is of Daniel being confronted with Jesus Christ here in the first verses of Daniel 10.

If we go back into the overview in chapter 10, we see an angel, which is clearly Gabriel according the Spirit of Prophecy, and he begins to tell about the struggle that he’s been having with the King of Persia and the Prince of Persia. Very specifically those are two distinct beings. The Spirit of Prophecy tells us this ‘Prince of Persia’ is none other than Satan. Satan was resisting and trying to stop Cyrus from fulfilling God’s will concerning God’s people. Gabriel was resisting and it was such a battle that ultimately Christ came to be involved with the struggle against Satan.

When Christ becomes involved with the Great Controversy as Michael, He is always portrayed in some kind of conflict with Satan. Michael is the key to seeing the Great Controversy portrayed in scripture. When Michael is there you’re seeing a piece of the story of the Great Controversy. Whether it’s Michael in Revelation 12, casting Satan out of heaven, or Michael arguing with Satan over his authority to resurrect the dead in Jude when He’s resurrecting Moses, or here where He’s struggling with the kings of the earth against Satan in order to control the history of the world within God’s providence for the benefit of His people and to accomplish his purpose in proof of the gospel.

By the time you get to Daniel 12:1 and Michael stands up, Sister White is quite clear that this is human probation closing. So what we are seeing here in Daniel’s last vision is the very climax of the Great Controversy in terms of the close of human probation. I’m not arguing that the Great Controversy has other scenes to be fulfilled after human probation closes, but certainly the close of probation for mankind is one of the most important and serious climaxes of the Great Controversy and this is portrayed in this last vision of Daniel.

The very opening verse of Daniel 1:1, is talking about a war between Babylon and Jerusalem and Babylon comes into Jerusalem and destroys Jerusalem. But by the time that we get to this climax of the Great Controversy in Daniel 12, the king of the North, the king of Babylon—Babylon being associated with the north—the king of Babylon at the end of the world is going to make a march on Jerusalem at the very end—but this time it’s going to be different than at the beginning—this time he doesn’t enter Jerusalem. He doesn’t destroy Jerusalem—this time he comes to his end and none shall help. So there are themes in this last vision that are part of a bigger theme in the Book of Daniel itself, that are worth recognising if we’re going to see the context of this overall picture.

In verse 21 of Daniel 10, Gabriel is speaking with Daniel and says, "But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince." And then begins the history of the struggle between these different political empires all the way until human probation closes.

Within this historical narrative we’ll find the only place in the Bible where the King of the North and the King of the South are set forth. Therefore, if there is a way to identify the King of the South and the King of the North, you have to find that rule within these chapters and that rule is there. The King of the South: the power that controls Egypt, the King of the North: the power that controls Babylon.

We definitely need to understand the history that begins in chapter 11. Adventists have a fair ability at setting forth the prophecies of Daniel all the way up to Daniel 11; but when we get to Daniel 11, there’s such a detailed history that it’s difficult to study the ebb and flow of that history to share it, so we don’t pursue it.

There is a very important passage where Sister White said that the prophecy of Daniel 11 is now in the process of fulfillment and then in the next sentence she says that much of the history that has taken place in the fulfilment of this prophecy will be repeated. So she’s teaching us that as Daniel 11 reached its final fulfilment, those scenes that are portrayed in that final fulfilment are going to be repeat of history that took place in the earlier part of Daniel 11.

So to reach a correct understanding of this final fulfilment of Daniel 11 then it must be worthwhile to understand this flow of history. Sister White was correct, there are very important histories that are illustrated in Daniel 11 that impact the conclusion and the conclusion is of such a serious nature that we need to be correct about it.

It’s time for Seventh-day Adventists to get as sharp on sharing Daniel 11 as they are on sharing Daniel 2. The information is available and the more you look at that information, the more relevant and serious it becomes, so it’s time that we begin to study to show ourselves approved.

Within this narrative are some very important symbols that we will look at as we go through. In Daniel 11 the story begins in the time of the Medes and Persians, it very quickly goes into the kingdom of Greece and Alexander the Great and the division of his kingdom to his four generals. They ultimately, through their struggles, are divided up into two kingdoms; Ptolemy and Selucus. These two kingdoms take up the rest of the struggle until you get to verse 14 and there we see the ‘robbers of thy people’ identified. These are the people that are going to exalt themselves.

They are to ‘establish the vision’ and when you approach verse 14 to the depth that I believe we should take it, verse 14 tells us that if you want to have a prophetic key of focus, to put this entire prophecy in place, what establishes the vision is these ‘robbers of thy people’.

The ‘robbers of thy people’ is Rome; this is where Rome comes into the narrative. Now, this may not seem significant but we’re going to look at this a little bit closer. Rome is the point of reference for this entire vision. Rome is the theme of the vision in the sense that even the information about the Medes and the Persians and the Greeks is simply information that leads and develops the testimony about Rome so that we can fully understand the testimony about Rome because it’s something that we need to understand before the end.

If you understand some of the other histories and controversies about Daniel 11, that have taken place in Adventism, this verse becomes extremely important. You’ll find that Uriah Smith, when he comes to verses 36 of Daniel 11, begins to identify the French Revolution time period and verse 36-39 and onward, he identifies it as the French Revolution and by the time he gets to verse 40 he’s identifying the King of the South and the King of the North as literal Egypt and literal area of Babylon. There are many in Adventism that don’t have any historical understanding of the controversies that went on about Daniel 11, but it’s at this point that a division comes in Adventism. Verse 36 and onward according to Uriah Smith is the French Revolution, then the literal application of the powers that are identified all the way to the end. The other understanding is verse 36 and onward is just a further elaboration of the Papacy.

Everyone agrees that in verse 35 and prior to that, the Papacy has come into the narrative and I believe the Papacy is just further identified in 36-39 and in verse 40 the King of the North is the Papacy—spiritual Babylon and the King of the South is atheism—spiritual entities. And this opposes Uriah Smith’s position. This is a controversy in Adventism that isn’t new, you could trace it back at least to James White and Uriah Smith and there is a controversy about their controversy.

Uriah Smith at one time gave a sermon identifying the King of the North as Turkey and the very next day James White got up in the same sanctuary and identified the King of the North as the Papacy. Sister White rebuked James White for doing that. She never rebuked James White for his position about the King of the North; she rebuked him for bringing an argument into the public forum in the church.

Many who believe that Uriah Smith is correct will tell you; "see there, Uriah Smith didn’t get rebuked, James White did get rebuked, therefore James White was incorrect." Part of that defence also is "Look at places where Sister White endorsed the book by Uriah Smith, Daniel and Revelation". There’s such a profound and glorious endorsement by the Spirit of Prophecy about that book by Uriah Smith that many people believe that Sister White was saying that everything that Uriah Smith put in that book was accurate as it could be. Now that’s one perspective.

Those that accept James White’s position on the King of the North being the Papacy go back to the very first publication that took place in the Advent movement called, ‘Word to the Little Flock’. There it is stated that the last power that comes to the end is the 666 power and that’s a paraphrase, but clearly it says that the King of the North is the Papacy. An argument would take place over that statement too, because those people who want to support Uriah Smith say, "Well the ‘Word to the little Flock’ says that the authors are James and Ellen White, how do we know whether that was Ellen White saying this power in verse 45 that comes to its end, this king of the North, is the Papacy in the ‘Word to the Little Flock". Was it James White or Ellen White that wrote that? If it was Ellen White, then the answer is clear, if it was James White then it is open for argument."

Without addressing that argument at this point, it is clear to see that James White understood the King of the North to be the Papacy. So when you line up the quotes where Sister White says that we should be getting out the book of Daniel and Revelation—the other quote that you need to throw in there is where Sister White says that her husband James White, when it came to Bible doctrine, fulfilled the roll of Moses to the Advent Movement. So you have to factor in that when it comes to Bible doctrine. The man that Sister White says is the leader, is my husband James and my husband James believes the king of the North is the Papacy. So you can approach this argument between Uriah Smith and James White over the King of the North with prophetic endorsement on either side of the issue.

Now, I don’t necessarily want to solve that controversy, that’s not what I’m attempting to do. We need to know who the King of the North is for ourselves and correctly from the scriptures and Spirit of Prophecy. But for those of us in Adventism that are familiar with this history, I’m at least giving you the tip of the iceberg that Daniel 11, which includes Daniel 10 and 12, they’re all the same vision, is the passage that has a great deal of controversial history within Adventism.

Now there’s another controversy, and in my mind it is the greatest controversy, in prophecy in Adventism today and it’s the "Daily". You find Daily in verse 31 of Daniel 11 mentioned and then you find it in chapter 12 as well. Sister White said that the pioneers had the correct view of the "Daily" and the pioneer position of the "Daily" was that it was Paganism.

In 1901, a different view came into Adventism, and at that time period there were only a couple Adventists that believed that view but they were leading figures and they had a burden to promote this view. Sister White counselled, she had several things to say, but one of her main themes was that the two men who were promoting this new view needed to keep quiet.

Those statements where she says, "On the subject of the Daily, silence is golden"; in our day and age many leaders, theologians, students in Adventism will say, "You know, the "Daily" is not that important, because I can go to passages in the Spirit of Prophecy where Sister White says on the subject of the "Daily", ‘silence is golden.’ So for you or anyone to be emphasizing that subject, you are opposing the Spirit of Prophecy."

That is not a fair reading of the information. Sister White is clear that on any subject that she addresses, time and circumstances need to be considered. When people are addressing this aspect of the Spirit of Prophecy, the classic illustration that comes to my mind is the time when she was rebuking Adventists for buying bicycles.

The actual facts at that time were that a bicycle, when she was giving that rebuke was costing people 1-2 month’s wages for one bicycle. So for you and I to take those passages saying we should not be buying bicycles as Seventh-day Adventists when you can get a bicycle today for an amount of money that is certainly not a month’s pay. Time and circumstances in the Spirit of Prophecy writings NEED to be considered.

In the time period when the ‘New View" on the "Daily" was being brought forth by these two men in Adventism, they were virtually the only ones promoting it. Here were two men against the whole church, promoting a view, and Sister White’s overall counsel was ‘silence is golden’. Considering the time and circumstances, what she was saying is—I don’t know how many members there were in the church at that time, so I’m picking this out of the air—we have a ‘hundred-thousand’ members in the church today, and we have two men over here promoting this new view. Let’s just keep quiet on this subject. This is consistent with where she says ‘error should never be mentioned from the pulpit’. She was basically saying, these men have the wrong view and instead of magnifying the issue by opposing them on every angle, let’s just drop the subject.

So her ‘silence is golden’ on the ‘Daily’ during that time period was valid counsel, but it is different today. Today it is virtually impossible to hear a sermon on the ‘daily’ or read a book on the ‘Daily’ that doesn’t promote and support this view that came into Adventism in 1901, and it is totally different than the view Wm. Miller and the pioneers had—the view that was held by the pioneers for the next 60 years in Adventism. There’s more to that controversy as well that we won’t deal with at this time.

In any case, the ‘Daily’ is part of the story of the book of Daniel 11. In fact it is found in the passage where Sister White says the ‘prophecy of Daniel 11 is now in the process of fulfilment, much of the history that has taken place in the fulfilment of this prophecy, will be repeated.’

She’s saying that Daniel 11 is about to be fulfilled and much of the history that has taken pace in the prior fulfilment of Daniel 11, is going to be repeated when it is fulfilled. She’s pointing us back to this history that we should understand and most of us don’t, saying, ‘there’s historical events in here that are going to be repeated in these final movements of Daniel 11. You need to understand them.’ As soon as she says that in this quote that I’m talking about, then she doesn’t simply point back to some of the history in Daniel 11, she quotes verses 30-35.

The point being is that she says ‘much of the history of Daniel 11 is being repeated, but here is the history you really need to understand. This is one of the histories that definitely WILL be repeated.’ Now we’re not dealing with that history at this point, but this is the history where the ‘Daily’ is!

The ‘Daily’ is identified in Daniel 11, verse 31. So, whatever this history is in connection with the ‘Daily’, we find in Adventism today at the end of the world a completely different view of that history than the pioneers did and we find that Ellen White and James White agreed with the pioneers.

So if we’re going to take the view of the ‘Daily’ that is the majority opinion in our day and look at that history from that perspective, the sequence of events in that history are going to be different than the history illustrated in the pioneer understanding. And yet Sister White says ‘these histories, particularly THIS history, will be repeated when Daniel 11 is being fulfilled’.

Now, if you have the wrong pattern it’s going to be virtually impossible to come to the right conclusion about the fulfilment of Daniel 11. This is a historical, theological controversy that’s also found within these last few verses of Daniel 11, and from my studies, this HAS eternal consequences.

If you take the history illustrated as the pioneers understood it, and you align it with the fulfilment of Daniel 11, there’s such profound and serious warnings in those verses. To use the wrong pattern, comes to the wrong conclusion and you loose those profound and serious warnings. It eliminates the ability for the Holy Spirit to shake us in such a way so as to bring about a revival in our experiences.

So this controversy, this history in Daniel is something that needs to be understood correctly, if you are going to come to some of the serious conclusions that are found in Daniel 11.

When Michael stands up in Daniel chapter 12:1, that’s when human probation closes. But that verse says, ‘and at that time’—at what time? That phrase in Daniel 12:1 points us back into the previous verses of Daniel 11. In other words, it’s saying in verse 12:1 ‘When Michael stands up’, when human probation closes, when the Great Controversy reaches its conclusion and mankind has been divided into two groups and the 7 last plagues are about to be poured out, ‘at that time’; that time is located in the final verses of Daniel 11. The final verses of Daniel 11 are describing the time period when human probation closes.

To not understand those verses correctly obviously has eternal consequences. It’s a serious understanding. And the pattern that has been set forth to give us the clear understanding of the final fulfilment of Daniel 11 according to the Spirit of Prophecy is the histories that are illustrated in Daniel 11. Especially the history associated with the ‘daily’, the ‘abomination of desolation’, which is the history of how the Pagan Roman Empire ascends and the Papal Roman empire ascends, and how they’re placed on the throne of the world. Whatever took place during that time period is pointing forward to what’s taking place in our time period today. Sure enough, if you go back and you look at that history, you can draw some very profound parallels.

I would suggest that this understanding in Daniel 10-12, is directly related to the final development of the 144,000. That emphasis and that truth I believe is established when understood correctly at the very beginning of the vision. Generally in Adventism, we recognize that Daniel in his book is symbolizing God’s people at the end of the world. One of the first things we’re told in this vision is that Daniel is confronted with a revelation of Jesus Christ and all the glory of his humanity is laid in the dust; symbolizing us at the end of the world. You and I need to have a revelation, a personal experience with Jesus Christ that lays our humanity in the dust.

When we’re at that point, we are at the point that Daniel is symbolizing. He’s symbolizing someone that is also located in Daniel 12, where we see two groups of people— one group is going to have understanding, and their understanding is going to be on prophecy among other things, and they’re going to bring many to righteousness. And those that don’t understand are called the wicked. Daniel is symbolizing those that have understanding during this time period, who, when Human probation is closing are bringing many to righteousness, the 144,000.