The book of Revelation opens up and reveals the visions of Daniel. In Daniel 11, the Angel of Yahweh comes and tells Daniel precisely what will occur during the sixty-two weeks, climaxing in the attack of Herod the Great on the children of Bethlehem, stirred up by reports from the east. (Daniel 11:44) But news from the east and the north shall trouble him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction. St. Matthew alludes to this passage in order to establish Herod the Great as the king who does what he wills. (Matthew 2:1-3) Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; Afterwards, the Angel of Yahweh merely tells Daniel that (1) Michael will arise, (2) a time of trouble will occur, and (3) many who sleep in the dust will awake, some to life and some to shame and contempt. But he tells Daniel to seal up the book for it awaits the time of the end. In Revelation 10, Jesus, as the Angel of Yahweh, descends and tells St. John to unseal the book. Now we will hear what Daniel could not. St. John chews it up, and the rest of Revelation unveils what the rest of the book has to show. Daniel 9 gave Daniel the history of the Seventy Weeks down to the middle of the Seventieth Week. Revelation 11 finishes it up- the Saints will be martyred for the last half of the seventieth week (1260 Days, three and a half days or symbolic years). Then God will resurrect the Church, and the conversion of the Gentiles will begin (the nations look onto the dead body of the Church). Revelation 12 opens up Daniel 11. (Revelation 12:1-7) And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, Herods attack on the children of Bethlehem is the dragon waiting to devour the child. But the Holy Virgin flees into the wilderness and the child ascends into heaven. The Archangel Michael leads the charge in defending the child, and we might see him as the angel who told Joseph to flee to Egypt. After the Dragon is swept down, St. John is shown what happens during and after the Seventieth Week. Satan will first try to kill the Seed, but the Woman (now the Church, symbolized by the figure of the Holy Virgin) will flee. This is fulfilled in Revelation 11 and the book of Acts- a great persecution arose from Jerusalem, and the Church fled. The base of operations moved to Antioch, the name Christian was given, and the evangelization of the Gentiles began. Then Satan will pour forth poisonous water from his mouth- heresy. The Judaizing heresy. But the land (the Jews) drank up the heresy. Then Satan will move to kill the Seed of the Woman. These are the converted Christians (as opposed to the Jews who had simply moved faithfully to the new covenant, who are the Bride) who are martyred under Nero. Revelation 13 then reveals Daniel 7. In Daniel 7, you have four beasts, one of them with four heads. Altogether, that makes seven heads. Then you have a little horn with a face (i.e. another head) who comes up among them and reduces three of the horns of the fourth beast to a stub. Revelation 13 reveals this little horn as the land beast (the Herods were the face of Rome for three Roman Emperors) with two horns- the Herods and the High Priests. Revelation 14-19 reveals the martyrdom of the Saints and the avenging of their blood by the destruction of Jerusalem. Finally, Revelation 20 opens up Daniel 12:3. The resurrection is split into two. There is a first resurrection. Thats Christian death. Just as the second death is the resurrection of the wicked, so the first resurrection is the death of the righteous. The first resurrection is composed of those who were beheaded. That goes back to the 144,000, who were marked as Nazirites. Nazirites have a dedicated head and those who faithfully live out the Christian life complete their Nazirite vow at death. The many who sleep in the dust of the earth are the whole of humanity. The resurrection begins immediately after AD 70, but it is completed at the Last Judgment. Daniel 12:3 thus collapses the whole history of the Church into a single verse, and the unsealing of the book revealed by the Angel of Yahweh means that this single verse is opened outwards and clarified.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 18:03:37 +0000
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