Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. … But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, "I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king." (Dan 1:3–10)

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7.

Daniel interacted with the chief of the eunuchs because Daniel and his friends were eunuchs: the Chaldean court was and is historically known for making eunuchs from the sons of captured kings and high persons, then having these sons serve the kings of Babylon, thereby elevating the majesty of Babylon. In analogy, Daniel and his friends being made physical eunuchs corresponds to Paul wishing all were as he was (1 Cor 7:7), not married and not focused on physical families but focused on the Lord and on the assemblies of the Lord. Plus, Matthew’s Jesus told His disciples,

For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it. (Matt 19:12)

The physical will form the left hand enantimer of a right hand spiritual reality, the left hand and the right hand forming chiral images of one another, both being referents in Paul’s dual referent theology. So Daniel being made a eunuch by the earthly king of Babylon forms a shadow and copy at one dimension lower than Christ Jesus, who made Himself a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of the heavens, with Christ Jesus to receive the throne and dominion presently held by the spiritual king of Babylon (see Isa 14:4) when dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from him.

Chiral images are non-symmetrical mirror images as the left hand is when compared to the right hand. So Daniel delivering the words of the Lord, especially delivering the word he received by an angel of what is inscribed in the Book of Truth (Dan 10:21), forms a mirror image of Jesus speaking only the Father’s words during His earthly ministry … the ultimate expression of chirality is man, created in the image and likeness of God, looking up at God who is looking down at man, the difference between earth and heaven forming the wilderness represented by the human body of a person truly born of spirit. Therefore, Israel’s journey through the wilderness, leaving Egypt the referent for Sin and entering the Promised Land a referent for heaven, life, and the Tree of Life, forms the chiral image of a second Israel’s journey from Death [represented by Assyria] to glorified life in heaven. Thus, the nation of Israel that left Egypt following its Passover liberation from physical slavery in a physical land by and to a physical king [“Pharaoh” — the name of Pharaoh is unimportant] forms the chiral image of greater Christendom before and immediately after the Second Passover liberation of this second nation of Israel. By extension, the children of Israel, not the nation of Israel that left Egypt, entering the Promised Land forms the chiral image of the third part of the little ones (from Zech 13:9) after being refined as silver is refined and tested as gold is tested and accepted by God as His own people, with this refining and testing to occur during the seven endtime years of tribulation: the Affliction and Kingdom and Endurance in Jesus (Rev 1:9).

The scholar who rejects the validity of the Passover narrative, saying that the exodus of two million or more people from Egypt (what 600,000 men would represent when wives and children are included) never occurred in the 2^nd-Millennium BCE, misses the point of chirality … in chemistry, the left hand and the right hand enantiomers of a molecule can only be seen in polarized [one dimensional] light. And to move polarized light from the physical to the spiritual, with Christ being the Light of this world—

In [primacy — arche] was [’o Logos], and [’o Logos] was with [ton Theon], and [Theos] was [’o Logos]. [This One] was in [primacy] with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the Light, that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but came to bear witness about the Light. The true Light, which gives Light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And [’o Logos] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the [unique] Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1–14)

—the narrative (story) of Israel’s exodus from Egypt need not be true but need only to exist and to be believed by Israel. For it is the Jesus story that remains in this world as polarized light, the story forming single dimensional light, the full spectrum of light having returned to heaven where He sits at the right hand of God. Thus, whether it is the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, or the story of the Temptation of Eve, or the story of Cain slaying righteous Abel, or the story of Noah and the Ark, it is “the story,” the narrative that exists in minds as a reality, not the historical or fictionalized event, that matters … the actual event no longer matters: it is telling and retelling of the narrative that matters. And this will take some getting used-to before infant sons of God can separate story from reality, accept the story, and not be overly concerned about the phenomena described in the story.

The educated person prides him or herself in not accepting as true everything the person hears, but investigating the matter for him or herself, testing by study and research whether things are as presented. The educated person, however, doesn’t test the spirits but what is physical and could have been seen by eyes or heard by ears. It is the spiritual person who tests non-physical spirits, with the prophet Daniel receiving from an angel [a spirit] knowledge of what is inscribed in the Book of Truth, a non-physical book of past as well as future happenings.

In the night that He was taken, Christ Jesus told His first disciples,

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another [Parakletos], to be with you forever, even the Spirit of the Truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it [auto] nor knows it. You know it, for it dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15–17)

The word of knowledge that Daniel received came from the spiritually inscribed Book of Truth. The word of knowledge that the Elect receive comes from the indwelling of the spirit of the truth [to pneuma tes ’aletheias], the spirit that reveals what has been concealed. And again, how has that which has been concealed revealed? Through understanding Paul’s dual referent theology, and the chirality of the visible things of this world revealing the invisible things of God (Rom 1:20).

Again, so there is no misunderstanding, the chirality of molecules is revealed in polarized light, not full spectrum light. The chirality of revelation is disclosed in the polarized light of the Jesus narrative, with “narrative” or story functioning as single dimensional light. So the phenomena that inspired the creation of the narrative is not important. Only the narrative is important. For a narrative about earthly events concerning Israel will, according to Paul, reveal the truth about what happens to those who are of God in the heavenly realm.

Again, the person who places importance on the phenomena described in a narrative about the people of God, going all the way back to Adam, misses the point of the narrative … as with poetry, the phenomenon that inspired the creation of the literary artifice isn’t important: the artifice itself is of importance.

The poem isn’t what happened, but is what “is” [what exists, crafted words].

The spirit of truth isn’t given to all people, but only to those born of spirit through the indwelling of Christ Jesus … in this present pre-Second-Passover era, salvation is individual, beginning with the Father foreknowing and predestining a person to be one of His firstborn sons while the person remains far from Him, then followed by Christ calling the person (John 15:16), justifying the person by being crucified for the person while the person remained a sinner (Rom 5:8), a reality that requires the disciple to grasp the timelessness of heaven, and then glorying the person through the indwelling of the spirit of Christ in the spirit of the person. Therefore, Christianity in this era is inherently an anti-family theology, with salvation being an individual matter, not something that could be passed from father to son, or from mother to daughter. Hence a person reared in an assembly worshiping God, Father and Son, was sanctified [made holy] (1 Cor 7:14), but not born of spirit unless drawn from this world by the Father (John 6:44) …

Again, in order for the person to be born of spirit, God the Father would have to draw the person from this world and deliver the person to Christ Jesus for Him to call, justify, and glorify [the person’s inner self] while the person continued to live physically. So spiritual birth was not automatically passed to the next generation. And coming from nearly two millennia later, the track record of greater Christianity is that the second generation doesn’t follow in the theological footsteps of parents.

Actually, the second generation of Christians should theologically journey beyond where parents ended their journey of faith as they figuratively trekked from spiritual Babylon to heavenly Jerusalem. For without a journey of faith analogous to Abraham’s journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran then on to Canaan, Egypt, and back to Canaan, no one can please God (with Egypt representing sin and coming out of Egypt representing leaving Sin, and with Haran, Assyria, representing Death, and Ur representing spiritual Babylon).

Every Christian must undertake a personal journey of faith that delivers the person truly born of spirit closer to God than the person’s parents. Otherwise, theological fossilization occurs as evidenced in Anabaptist sects and other well-known denominations.

In this present era it is rare that successive generations of persons are called, justified, and glorified by the indwelling of Christ—and when it occurs, it is usually not recognized. For again, the second generation in this generation’s journey toward perfection will move beyond parents and their doctrines and understandings, which often causes parents to not recognize their children as genuinely Christian, and vice versa. For too often, if the second generation doesn’t hold the exact theology of parents, the parents are disappointed by their offspring, believing that their offspring have gone astray. Unfortunately, that is usually the case; for usually the second generation has not been drawn from this world by the Father. It seems that within a family generations are skipped before God again draws a family member from this world.

Paul wasn’t worried about what his biological offspring did or believed. Nor would Daniel have been. For as far as we know, Paul had no children. And for the sake of the kingdom, the man Jesus of Nazareth lived as a eunuch; for once glorified, He became a life-giving spirit [pneuma], thereby giving life to every human son of God born of spirit.

The spirit of God the Father [pneuma Theou] entered into and resided in the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou], thereby spiritually putting Christ Jesus in the procreative role of a human wife during Jesus’ earthly ministry, but in the generational role of firstborn son. Thus, following Calvary and Resurrection, Christ Jesus delivered spiritual life to His first disciples by breathing on them (John 20:22), thereby directly transferring the spirit of God in His spirit to the spirits of these human persons, His spirit entering into the spirit of each of His first disciples [to pneuma tou ’anthropou]. So for human sons of God, Christ Jesus is both Head and Life-Giver, with His children being more than the woman who physically brought many sons into this world for her husband.

Because Christ Jesus is both a life-giving spirit and the Head of disciples, with God the Father as His Head (e.g., 1 Cor 11:3; 15:45), the relationship between God and His Christ can be visualized in the relationship of a man and his wife superimposed over the relationship between a man and his firstborn son … the earthly man Jesus could not have married, nor have fathered children, and still become the life-giving spirit when glorified. Likewise, human persons cannot when glorified be life-giving spirits for in the physical, they either fathered children or gave birth to children or desired to do so by engaging in physical intercourse.

Turning to what Matthew’s Jesus said about marriage, we see, “‘For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven’” (Matt 22:30, also Mark 12:25). And if human sons of God are like angels, they are spiritually asexual even though they temporarily dwell in either a male or female earthly “house.”

Again, angels are sons of God, but are not sexual beings … a glorified son of God will not be a sexual being. A eunuch is not a sexual being; a eunuch is physically as an angel would be if the angel were of earthly substance.

Daniel, by being made a eunuch when a youth, had his desire to father children involuntarily removed from him; thus Daniel served both God and served the earthly king of Babylon, not himself or a wife and family. As a chiral image of Daniel, Christ Jesus during His earthly ministry served God and will, as the Son of Man, serve as the successor to the spiritual king of Babylon. He presently serves firstborn sons of God as their elder brother and as their High Priest. He will serve glorified firstborn sons of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, with the resurrected David being the glorified king over Israel.

As the present prince of this world (that old dragon Satan the devil) is not a physically observable ruler, the Son of Man when dominion over this world is taken from the present prince and give to this Son of Man, will not be a physically observable ruler, reigning from a physical throne in a physical city. The demonic kings that are lesser than the present prince of this world reign over ideologies, with the demonic first king of Greece reigning over the appetites of the belly and the loins. But this will need to be seen.

The legends, novels, and movies that depict Mary Magdalene as the wife of Jesus (and their child as the Holy Grail) originate from carnally minded individuals being unable to perceive Jesus as a voluntary eunuch, self-molded into a likeness of Daniel who delivered to his people Israel the words of the Lord concerning Israel in the generic time of the end.

Realization that Daniel was a eunuch, and as such, a type of Christ should cause endtime disciples to more carefully read Daniel’s words, especially now since his visions are no longer sealed and kept secret. This realization should cause endtime disciples to jettison all previous readings of Daniel, but unfortunately, this will not be the case. If it were the case, perhaps the Apostasy wouldn’t occur—but the Apostasy will occur. However, no Christian has to rebel against God when filled with spirit. Rebellion will come via unbelief of the sort that kept the people of Israel that left Egypt, except for Joshua and Caleb, from entering the Promised Land.

For greater Christendom to see the fulfilling of Daniel’s visions as ongoing events should turn minds toward God, Father and Son … to finally begin this section, it’s time to rejoin the work in progress.

About the prophet Daniel’s interpretation of the vision King Nebuchadnezzar saw, Daniel said to the king,

Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall happen after this. The dream is certain and its interpretation sure. (Dan 2:39-45 emphasis added)

As John, exiled to the Isle of Patmos, was physically separated from the assemblies of Christ Jesus that were in Judea and from those that were in Asia, Daniel was theologically separated from the children of Israel: “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord” (Deut 23:1).

Once in Babylon, Daniel would have been cut off from the assembly of the Lord. He could have no fellowship with his people other than with the Hebrew youths who were also eunuchs. And here is where a textual defugalty is revealed: the Ethiopian eunuch who had come to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 8:27) wouldn’t have been allowed either to enter the temple or to enter the assembly of the Lord; for he was an eunuch.

As a means of showing difference between Judaism and the assembly of Christ Jesus in Judea, the Second Sophist novelist who wrote Acts had Philip baptize this eunuch … a novel can convey the essence of truth without being true, and this is apparently what the author of Acts was attempting. For Acts truly is a Greek novel, a fictional construct loosely based on Paul’s epistles. And what’s important in the story of the Ethiopian eunuch is the principle of inclusion; of breaking down the barrier caused by fleshly circumcision.

But what this novelist missed was what the author of Hebrews wrote.

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). (Heb 9:6–9)

For as long as the temple stood, the way into the holy places was closed, with <temple> having two referents, Herod’s temple and the Church. Thus, for as long as Herod’s temple stood, no physical person other than the high priest once a year could enter the Holy of holies. Likewise, for as long as the spiritual Body of Christ lived—for as long as the spiritual temple stood—no person could come before God except by way of Christ Jesus, Israel’s High Priest. However, when the Body of Christ, the spiritual temple, died (again, ca. 100–102 CE), the way to God was opened as it was when Daniel served the king in Babylon. And this becomes important; for a righteous person who professed that Jesus was Lord and believed that the Father raised Jesus from death could, with the Body of Christ dead, come before God without the person being of Israel.

The preceding becomes important for even the unrighteous person foreknown by the Father and predestined to be called, justified and glorified inwardly while still physically alive will pass from death to life without coming under Judgment. This unrighteous person will not, with the indwelling of Christ, remain unrighteous: the person need only to be foreknown and predestined by the Father before this person knows anything about God.

Daniel was able to come before God in prayer because Solomon’s temple had been razed by the Chaldeans. Daniel needed no animal sacrifices, no intervention by priests or high priest. Nothing stood between him and the Lord. That is, nothing for as long as Daniel remained faithful—and the testimony of Ezekiel is that Daniel was in the same category of faithfulness as Noah and Job (Ezek 14:14), neither of whom could have entered the assembly of the Lord (for there was no assembly when they lived).

Was the Ethiopian eunuch drawn from this world by God the Father? We don’t know, and cannot know. But, for the author of Acts salvation in this era wasn’t individual but collective; hence he has three thousand and five thousand at a time coming to Christ, unrealistic numbers concerning that there was no mention of the Jesus Movement by Roman governors or officials until the 2^nd-Century CE … if eight thousand converts to a new ideology were to have suddenly taken place in the fourth decade of the 1^st-Century in a Roman providence, correspondence between provincial officials and Rome would have occurred, with this correspondence being preserved. So the story of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch is useful only in showing that late 1^st-Century (when the novelist wrote Acts) Christianity was an inclusive theology.

Returning to the concept that the narrative is important, not the phenomena that inspired the narrative, the story of Philip baptizing the eunuch retains importance as an example of inclusiveness, with neither the eunuch’s race nor physical status preventing baptism. But this baptism probably didn’t occur: none of Acts seems to be literally true when the novel is tested against other texts.

The inclusion of a text in the scriptural canon doesn’t mean that the text is of God, spoken by God, or inspired by God. Inclusion simply means that the text was important to the Jesus Movement after the Body of Christ was dead in this world.

The person born of spirit has the mind of Christ in a similar manner to how a human infant has the mind of man but doesn’t yet know the things of a man.

And concerning the author of Acts having three thousand baptized in a day, if a person is not drawn from this world by the Father and predestined to be glorified as fruit born out of season, baptism does the person no good. The person merely gets wet. And if the person has been drawn from this world by the Father and predestined to be glorified as part of the harvest of firstfruit, baptism serves as a public appeal for a good conscience, a public commitment to keeping the Commandments:

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. (1 Pet 3:21–22)

Baptism isn’t for receiving the spirit of God, but for signifying that the person has publicly killed his [or her] old self, old nature.

The author of Acts, in working with 1^st-Century “Jesus” material, was not familiar enough with Moses to appreciate the reason why a male with crushed testicles or a castrated male could not enter the assembly of the Lord … Moses was separated from his people Israel by having been reared in Pharaoh’s household, and the great nation that the Lord told Moses that He would make from him (Ex 32:10 et al) is a nation separated from the assembly of Israel by having been individually called out from the world, collective humanity. This great nation is the Elect that have been foreknown by God, predestined by God, called, justified, and glorified by the indwelling of Christ. And the seven named assemblies in John’s vision are assemblies of the Elect that are one with Christ through the indwelling of the spirit of Christ in each of them. And Daniel, by his exclusion from the assembly of Israel, would have been as Moses was; as the Elect are.

The Elect constitute the seven horns on the head of the slain Lamb of God, not the Body of the Lamb.

The Elect, having heard the word of Jesus and believing the One who sent His Beloved into this world as the man Jesus and having passed from death to life without coming under judgment (John 5:24), are separated from the assembly of Israel as Moses was; as Daniel was; as Jesus was; as the first disciples were. And it is this separation that the author of Luke’s Gospel and of Acts didn’t understand—and that greater Christendom still doesn’t understand.

Again, as Moses, reared as an Egyptian prince, was separated from his enslaved brethren; as Moses, a fugitive for having killed the Egyptian, was separated from his still enslaved brethren, Daniel was separated from his enslaved brethren. As Moses served in Pharaoh’s house and apparently served as a general in war against the upper Nile kingdom, Daniel served the king of Babylon, even to keeping this kingdom together for the seven years that Nebuchadnezzar had the mind of an ox … why an ox, not a bull? The question should answer itself. For the spiritual king of Babylon, that old dragon Satan the devil, when cast to earth will not be permitted to procreate by producing more rebels than he already produced when still the prince of this world. Therefore, at the end of the Thousand Years, when released from his imprisonment, the Adversary will deceive the corners of humanity by “using” the things he had when he was prince of this world, a subject to be addressed in a future installment of this series.

Traditionally, Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision has been read as a roadmap for the course of secular history, this road paved with a series of metals, gold replaced by silver and silver replaced by bronze and bronze replaced by iron: Babylon succumbed to the Medes and Persians, who were defeated by Alexander the Great.

The traditional reading of Daniel’s interpretation has Rome defeating the Greeks and the two legs of iron representing the divided Roman Empire, but what about the divided Greek Empire, the Ptolemaic Empire and the Seleucid Empire?

Problems enter the traditional reading of Daniel’s interpretation by not noticing that the thighs of the humanoid image seen in vision are bronze, not iron … when Rome defeated the Ptolemaic Empire and the western portion of the Seleucid Empire, Rome was not divided but was a unified empire. Rome didn’t divide until centuries later. Plus, Rome never defeated the eastern portion of the Seleucid Empire, which according to Chinese ambassadors was the equal of their own empire.

The usual assignment of meaning to Daniel’s interpretation has Rome defeating the Greeks, which they did but not before the Maccabees had liberated Judea from Seleucid rule.

The traditional interpretation has Rome dividing into two legs after conquering the Greeks, which again Rome did when Theodosius I died, and his empire was divided between his two sons, with Arcadius receiving the eastern half and with his younger son Honorius receiving the western half, centuries after Rome had defeated the Greeks.

Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision doesn’t support traditional readings of his interpretation; for the division of the image was in its bronze portion, with the thighs or loins, the heaviest part of the legs, being bronze, hence Hellenist Greek.

Usual Protestant or Arian readings of Daniel’s interpretation are, frankly, dishonest distortions of the text. And prophecy pundits teaching traditional reading are false prophets, deceitful, and carnally or naturally minded. They are without spiritual understanding and should be avoided. … The division of the image occurs in its bronze portion, the portion that shall rule the world. Rule is never given to the iron legs. Rather, they break or crush the rule of the bronze, an odd juxtaposition considering that the kingdom of God will crush the iron and clay toes, thereby breaking in pieces all these kingdoms, bringing them to an end. The iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—all are together when the breath of the Lord blows them away as if they were chaff.

In the physical that sealed and kept secret Daniel’s visions, the Hellenistic Greeks that created the Ptolemaic Empire were gradually but nearly completely overcome by enduring Egyptian culture, overcome to such as degree that these Greeks adopted Egyptian burial practices. Likewise, the Hellenistic Greeks that created the Seleucid Empire were overwhelmed by the religions and traditions of the Persians, with even Alexander the Great adopting Persian dress and customs. So both legs of the humanoid image of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision began as Greek [bronze, in the physical] cultures but ended up being overwhelmed by the culture of the people, a true application of Greek democracy.

The humanoid image still stood/stands when the kingdom of God crushes its feet. It stands as a man stands, a vertical image casting a horizontal shadow. And it is the middle of the image, the belly and loin region that rules over the world—and continues to rule until the stone cut without hands crushes the feet.

There is nothing in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision that suggests the humanoid image was clothed—and if not clothed, then the penis would have appeared as a horn coming from between eyes, the pelvic sockets suggesting eye sockets:

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first [the vision of chapter 7]. And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. (Dan 8:1–5)

And,

Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. (Dan 8:19–21)

There are time-markers associated with Daniel’s visions, beginning with Daniel telling Nebuchadnezzar that his vision was for the latter days:

The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?" Daniel answered the king and said, "No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.” (Dan 2:26–28 emphasis added)

If the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision were clothed, seeing that the belly and loins were bronze would not have been possible … only by the image being unclothed could belly and loins be seen, and if unclothed, the presence or absence of the image’s penis would be observed.

About the he-goat that flies out of the west, Daniel records,

He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. (Dan 8:6–8)

If the bronze section of the humanoid image seen by Nebuchadnezzar were the King of Greece, then the great or first horn that came from between his eyes would appear on the image the king saw as an erect penis, if the image were seen before this great horn was broken. No penis would be seen if the image the king saw was seen after this first king was broken, with the angel telling Daniel, “‘As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power’” (Dan 8:22).

In the word of knowledge Daniel received about what was inscribed in the Book of Truth, the four horns that are four kings and kingdoms morph into two kings, the king of the South and the king of the North:

And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these. Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority. (Dan 11:2–6)

Before continuing, for understanding visualize the humanoid image the king saw as a standing man, the way Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel saw the image. Now, step back before this image stood on iron legs and consider how the image would have appeared before the mighty king of Greek was broken … why do advertising agencies use a sensuous woman to sell automobiles, or uses soft porn to sell hamburgers? The appetites of the flesh rule over humanity. The appetites of the belly and groin rule. What the iron legs do is break and crush this rule of fleshly appetites.

Again, about the belly and loins, Daniel tells the king,

You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. … You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. (Dan 2:31–33, 37–40 emphasis added)

It is the third kingdom that shall rule over all the earth, and ancient Greece briefly ruled much of the earth but not all of the earth. Likewise, Nebuchadnezzar as king of Babylon ruled a vast empire, but did not rule the children of men wherever they dwelt, nor did this human king rule over the beasts of fields or the birds of the air. So either Daniel spoke hyperbole when he addressed Nebuchadnezzar, or another referent existed for the head of gold; for all of the metals.

Plus, before going further, examination of Daniel’s vision of the first year of Belshazzar needs to begin:

Daniel declared, "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, “Arise, devour much flesh.” After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. (Dan 7:2–8 emphasis added)

Dominion is given to the third beast/king, not to the first, second, or fourth, with this third king having four heads and four wings … only one head is needed for an entity, but two wings are needed. Thus, implied is that the four heads merge into two entities that are of one body—

In the image the king of Babylon saw, the third kingdom rules the earth. In the word of knowledge given Daniel from the inscribed Book of Truth, great dominion is given to the King of Greece. And from the history recorded by Daniel (without going to secular histories), endtime disciples know that “Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old” from Belshazzar, king of Babylon (Dan 5:31). And from Daniel’s vision, endtime disciples know that the shorter horn of the ram that came up first represented the Medes.

In the image the king saw, there is no first or great horn in the belly or loin region. This first or great horn has been broken, because he is “first,” an uncovered firstborn at the Second Passover liberation of Israel. Therefore, as seen and as will be seen, the image the king saw is time-stamped to the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years.

Enter again Paul’s dual referent theology.

The iron legs are actually oriented on a north-south axis, not on an east-west axis. When Christ returns, “there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt” (Isa 11:16). In biblical typology, Assyria represents death as Egypt represents sin. In the vision Daniel received about what would happen to his people, kings of the north and of the south war with each other. Today, disciples war against the law of sin and death that dwells in their members (Rom 7:25) … Rome is nowhere mentioned in biblical prophecy, for cause. Biblical prophecies pertain to the geographical region that encompasses pre-Flood Eden, the land from the Tigress River in the north (Assyria) and east (Babylon) to Egypt and the land a little west of the Nile River. This geographical region (in relationship to the whole world) portrays the conscious confines of humanity’s mental topography. Biblical prophecies are ultimately about what occurs in the minds and hearts of human beings; are about where people mentally live. Real estate is used to make “visible” invisible mindsets. Real nations have been used to represent self-aware consciousness. Thus, a physically circumcised Israelite dwelling in a stone house in the hill country of Judea serves as the lively shadow of the disciple born of Spirit, or born anew as stone represents flesh; as what is physical moves to spiritual.

Actually, Christians live in fleshly temples analogous to Solomon’s temple, which was stone on the outside and sheathed with gold inside. This is what the Apostle Paul understood, but what the circumcision faction did not. This is what The Philadelphia Church today understands, but the Churches of God do not. This is what the remnant that keep the commandments and have the spirit of prophecy (Rev 12:17 with Rev 19:10) use in their victory against the antiChrist.

One iron leg is unable to rule over the other leg, just as the Seleucid and Ptolomaic empires were unable to rule over the other. Rather, their warring broke and crushed Greek rule over the geographical region representing pre-Flood Eden. And these two empires form the shadow of spiritual Babylon’s legs once the great horn, located in the groin region of the image, is broken.

All traditional explanations of Daniel’s interpretation should be rejected; for Rome truly doesn’t belong in biblical prophecies, nor do revivals of the Roman or Holy Roman Empire. The European Union is not a ten nation, seventh revival of the Holy Roman Empire as is too often taught in the Churches of God. Such teachings are not of God.

Again, the shadow of a standing man lies horizontally across the ground. Likewise, the shadow of the standing Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar saw lay across secular history from Nebuchadnezzar to Antiochus Epiphanes, whose rule over Jerusalem was broken by physical sons of light. The shadow ends where Christ Jesus will crush, in a different manner than how the Maccabees defeated the Seleucids, spiritual Babylon halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation. The shadow doesn’t continue through another secular kingdom—Rome—nor will there be another secular kingdom after the king of the North (Death) is taken and dealt a deathblow, with his body given over to be burned.

Daniel records the fall of Babylon:

Then Daniel answered and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you his son [successor], Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.

Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.…That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old. (Dan 5:17-28, 30-31)

Thus, the prophet Daniel records the rise of another kingdom (Dan 2:39) after Babylon, and the division of this kingdom, with the Medes first coming to power. Because of the division, it was never possible for the Medes and Persians to have the glory or radiance that Babylon possessed. It isn’t possible for arms and chest to have the glory of the head, just as silver doesn’t have the radiance that gold has.

This section is growing long, but before breaking and the thought being continued in Section Eight, a word more needs to be said about Daniel being a eunuch:

In being separated from the assembly of the Lord because of mutilation, Daniel entered into the presence of the Lord because he was greatly loved … it is the person born of spirit’s sexless inner self that is greatly loved by God, with this inner self receiving knowledge of “truth” through the indwelling of the Parakletos. Hence every son of God has or will have greater knowledge of what is inscribed in the Book of Truth than Daniel had. And that is a tremendous gift that the Son has arranged for His younger brothers to receive.

(to be continued)

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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

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