Eternity is really long, especially near the end.
—WOODY ALLEN
Most of these pages you’ve just read were inspired by and based on the first half of the book of Daniel. It has all the cool stories we usually associate with him—the Daniel “diet,” the fiery furnace, the lions’ den. These stories all reveal Daniel’s key point, which is the same one I’ve tried to make throughout this book: when faced with cultural pressure, don’t compromise your faith or the opportunity to influence the world for God’s kingdom.
The entire nation of Israel was held captive in Babylon, and although they wanted to live and serve the true living God, the culture around them demanded something else. As I shared at the beginning of this journey, I can think of no better field guide for us today than the example set by Daniel more than two thousand years ago. Our culture is sliding, shifting, slipping away before our eyes each day. What can we do about it?
If you’ve read this far, then you clearly want to do something, to stand your ground and, like Daniel, to be a person of influence in the culture around you. While I’ve done my best to equip you, based on the first half of Daniel’s writings along with other Scripture, I would be doing you an injustice if I didn’t share at least a little about the message found in the second half of Daniel.
Signs of the Time
When I’m talking with other people about how to remain godly in an ungodly culture, there’s often a natural progression to discussing end times. With all the immoral, chaotic, never-seen-before depravity in the world around us, it’s logical to think we must be getting close to the end of time, to the day when Jesus will return to earth. This concern is nothing new and has fascinated, terrified, and motivated people from the moment Jesus ascended until today. I can assure you that we’re not going to know exactly when he will return. In fact, Jesus himself said as much: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matt. 24:36).
When faced with cultural pressure, don’t compromise your faith or the opportunity to influence the world for God’s kingdom.
Jesus understood, then as now, that people want a specific, concrete answer to this question. They want charts and graphs and timelines and boxes that can be checked off a list. But he made it clear that wasn’t going to happen and that it wasn’t even possible, because even he didn’t know—only his Father knows. Jesus’ followers finally wised up a little bit and asked a different, albeit related, question: “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’” (Matt. 24:3).
Jesus answered their question with a list of signs and indications of his imminent return. He then concluded:
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
So when you see standing in the holy place “the abomination that causes desolation,” spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand.” (Matt. 24:12–15)
See the connection? Here we see Jesus himself validate Daniel as a prophetic book. He basically says that the events Daniel saw and prophesied are still to come. Notice the general requisites he mentions: the increase of wickedness, the falling away of many and the steadfastness of only a few, and the way the gospel will be preached throughout the world.
If you need further evidence of Daniel’s prophetic relevance to the end times, just consider this: Daniel is the most quoted source in Revelation. While numerous books of the Old Testament are referenced in Revelation, Daniel comes up more than thirty times. Daniel definitely knew something about Christ’s return.
Of the dozen chapters in Daniel, six of them reveal a series of prophetic dreams and visions he had. While they all reveal the future, and while Jesus reinforced their ongoing relevancy for us today, everyone does not agree on how we should interpret them. In case you haven’t noticed, there are as many different theological perspectives on eschatology, or how to study end times, as there are churches around the world. They range from being historic pre-millennialist to dispensational post-millennialist. You might even be an All-American amillennialist or a super-duper supersessionist. Or, like many people, you could be a plain old pan-millennialist—someone who believes it’s all going to pan out in the end!
Regardless of your views about how and when it’s all going to end, we can all agree that we need to regard it with wisdom. I don’t claim to have all the answers or the perfect interpretation of prophecy from the Bible. But I do want to share briefly with you what I see there, specifically in Daniel and the way Daniel is cross-referenced in Revelation. As we wrap up our time together, I want to dip into the last half of Daniel, connect it to Revelation, and tell you what I think it means for us today. I encourage you to study these passages in more depth and to forgive me for distilling them down to what I see as their essence. Consider my final thoughts here as a kind of exclamation point to the rest of this book.
Because no matter when Jesus comes back, we all need to be ready.
Multiplication Test
Like many of the Old Testament prophets, Daniel foretold the coming of the Messiah, the one God would someday send to rescue his people from their sins. In the second half of the book of Daniel, there’s one place where Daniel summarizes all his prophetic visions and explains them by way of what he calls the “seventy sevens.” The word for “seventy” is straightforward and means the number 70. The word for “sevens,” however, comes from the Hebrew word shavuah, which literally means a period of time based on seven increments.
Originally, some Bible translators thought this word meant “week,” which seems logical because in our way of keeping time, seven days make a week. However, taken in context of history, it’s clear Daniel is describing periods of seven years. So, his summary of what he’s seen regarding the future comes down to viewing it in seventy different seven-year periods. Using our multiplication skills, we see that Daniel prophetically revealed 490 (70 x 7) years of future events. Here’s how he described these “70 sevens”:
Seventy “sevens” are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven “sevens,” and sixty-two “sevens.” It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two “sevens,” the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one “seven.” In the middle of the “seven” he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. (Dan. 9:24–27)
Now, what’s interesting about Daniel’s list of signs is that all of them have been fulfilled in different generations. No wonder, then, that almost every generation thought they were the generation that would see the return of Christ. Probably one of the best guesses would have been during World War II, when the countries around the globe obviously faced wars and rumors of wars. Add in a figure like Hitler, and many people logically thought, Wow, he’s got to be the anti-Christ. However, looking back now, we know that despite the fulfillment of all these signs, we’re still waiting. And here’s why: while multiple generations have experienced various signs, no one generation has experienced them all at the same time.
Until now. Our generation is the first one in which this is the case. You and I are alive during a time when all the biblical, prophetic signs are being fulfilled at the same time. This is my basis for believing we are not only in the end times, but we are at the end of the end times.
Here’s how I summarize this key passage: Daniel saw 70 seven-year periods, a total of 490 years, of prophecy. Of this total, 69 of those 70 seven-year periods have been fulfilled. In other words, 483 of the 490 years of future events Daniel saw in his visions have already transpired. Only the last seven-year period remains.
By the way, all the things Daniel prophesied about in those first 483 years? All true. For example, he predicted Alexander the Great. Daniel could foresee a king coming from the Greeks. He saw the Roman Empire taken over. He described it all years beforehand, and it all played out exactly like he saw it. I could write an entire book—and some people have—on the ways Daniel’s prophecies have been fulfilled. But for our purposes, I just want to briefly spotlight my view on the last seven-year period, namely, that we are already on the cusp of it.
While I don’t think we have entered into this last seven-year period, I do believe it’s imminent. Why? Because the requisite prophecies have been fulfilled and the world stage has been set for Jesus’ return. Daniel talked about it, Jesus talked about it, Paul talked about it, Peter talked about it, and, of course, the entire book of Revelation focuses on John’s vision of those last seven years of tribulation. I’m convinced we have reached the beginning of the end.
To Infinity and Beyond
Even if you disagree with me, which I certainly respect your right to do, I hope you will agree that with each flip of the calendar, each digital blink of the clock, all of us are one day closer to Christ’s return. Whenever people ask me, “Are we living in the end times? Are these the last days?” I always tell them, “Yes, these are definitely your last days!” It goes back to the message that mysterious hand wrote on the Babylonian king’s wall that Daniel had to decipher: Our days are numbered. Our time is short. We’re told:
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. (2 Peter 3:10–12)
Once again, we’re reminded that we’re not able to predict the exact time of Christ’s return. If you could predict when a thief was going to break into your house, you would call the police or you might just stay up with a gun in hand. You would be ready. But since we’re not able to know the time, we can quit worrying and putting our energy into figuring it out. Instead, we should focus on answering a different, more urgent question: “What kind of people ought you to be?”
If we want to stand strong in a bow-down culture, we need to be ready for Christ’s return.
We need to be ready. I personally believe we are the generation that is seeing the fulfillment of all the signs. Because it’s going to happen as unexpectedly as a thief in the night, we need to be ready. Ask yourself every day, “What kind of person should I be, knowing I am living in an age that could be the end times?”
This passage from 2 Peter answers our question: “You need to live holy and godly.” Here holy doesn’t mean perfect; it means separate. It’s hagios in the Greek, and it literally means “just don’t be all up in that junk.” We’ve got to be in the world without being of the world. We’ve got to be in culture without culture permeating us. We’ve got to influence the culture, not reflect the culture.
After we’re told to live holy and separate lives, in the world but not of it, notice the last phrase: “. . . and you can actually speed the return of Christ” (2 Peter 3:12, my paraphrase). Really? Did you know that you play a role in the return of Christ? Daniel confirms this as well: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).
We’ve got to influence the culture, not reflect the culture.
Could it be any clearer? Go, be a shining light, lead many to righteousness. When we do, we aid and assist in the return of Christ himself on the earth. That’s why we need to come together and be a church that is on mission to reach as many people as we possibly can. That’s what God is asking us to do.
If we don’t want to compromise our faith but we do want to influence our culture, then we must follow God first.
Culture changes; God doesn’t. We need to follow him, not culture. As we see on a daily basis, culture is constantly changing. The crucial question becomes, are we going to change with it? If we change with it, we are not part of the wise. We’re part of the group that just got duped, enamored with all its stuff. We’ve got to let the Word of God be our standard and then follow him, not the clamor of voices yelling from every direction around us.
We must reject the deception and moral corruption all around us without giving up on other people. In our influence, we are to be a part of the world. In our hearts, we are to be separate. Here’s how Paul expressed this tension: “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23).
Finally, if we want to live a godly life in an ungodly culture, we must make the most of the life and resources we’ve been given.
In all places, at all times, preach the gospel with your attitude and actions. And if you need to use words, do that too.
Don’t lose your focus on what this life is really all about. Remember: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Eph. 5:15–17). Find your God-given purpose, his will for your life, and make the most of it. Daniel was a prisoner of war, a teenager enslaved by people with customs and values almost the exact opposite of his own. And yet, he still found a way to be the person God created him to be: a prophet, a spokesman of truth, a shining example to people everywhere. Even now, thousands of years later, we see the impact a person of influence can exert.
Do whatever it takes—short of sin—to bring as many people as you can with you into heaven. Don’t resign yourself to defeat when you read headlines or confront the sinful behavior of others. Don’t compromise your values and think there’s nothing you can do. Don’t give up on people just because they disagree with you. You have a glorious hope, the only real hope, to offer others. Make the most of your life, even though these days are evil, and make the most of this opportunity that God has given you. He’s strategically placed you in the most important generation of all times. Don’t waste it.
Your time to shine is now!