THE TRUTH ABOUT DANIEL 8:14

Those who look to the Second Advent as the great saving act, have failed to distinguish rightly, that event from Calvary. It was at Calvary the Saviour declared (concerning our reconciliation with heaven), ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).

Books, such as The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsay, which claim to explain the prophecies of Revelation and other Scriptures, actually teach what has been called ‘panic theology.’1

The impact of these books on many people is poles apart from the influence of the New Testament’s proclamations of the end of the world. The New Testament calls the Second Advent ‘the blessed hope’ (Titus 2:13); it implies that contemplation of that blessed hope automatically leads to increases in faith, hope, and love. This is a far cry from the apocalyptic fever frequently associated with modern presentations of the ‘End.’

How is it possible to contemplate the appearance of Christ, the Great Judge, while aware of personal residual imperfections—and not panic? The answer is, the Second Advent must always be viewed through the lens of the First.

CARDINAL PRINCIPLE OF THEOLOGY.

It is a cardinal principle of theology that many things which can, and must be distinguished, should never be separated. This is true of the Members of the Godhead—the two natures of Christ, justification and sanctification, law and gospel, faith and works, etc. In eschatology, the Second Advent of Christ must be distinguished from the First Advent, but never separated.

Only those who, by faith, have been crucified with Christ—those who have perceived that they already have exhausted the wrath of God in the Substitute and surety—only those, can contemplate the return of the King of kings with equanimity. They are ‘complete in him;’ ‘accepted in the Beloved.’ And for them there is no condemnation, neither today, nor at the hour of his appearing (Col. 2:10; Eph. 1:6; Rom. 8:1, 33-34).

Many churches have separated the Second Advent from the First by failing to proclaim it. Others have erred in reverse: stressing the Second Coming, but paying only lip-service to the preeminence of the cross of the First Advent. The great principle of theology demands distinction, without separation. Those who look to the Second Advent as the great saving act, have failed to distinguish rightly, that event, from Calvary. It was at Calvary the Saviour declared (concerning our reconciliation with heaven), ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).

BIBLE ILLUSTRATION OF PRINCIPLE

When Christ was on the Mount of Olives and gave his revelation of events associated with the Second Advent, he drew largely from the messianic prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27. This passage has been called ‘the foundation stone of the Christian religion,’ and is often understood as applying only to the First Advent of Christ.

Our Lord’s exposition of Daniel’s prophecy, makes it clear he saw it as embracing his Second Advent as well as the First. But as he applied the specifics of Daniel 9:24-27 to the Parousia, he did so, while interweaving allusions to his approaching Passion.

Thus, when we look at Daniel 9:24-27 through the eyes of Jesus, a great prophecy about the First Advent is seen to embrace the Second. (This illustrates again that some things distinct, must never be separated.) More than this, when we contemplate the Second Advent discourse of Matthew 24-25 (see parallels in Mark 13; Luke 21), we discover it heralds an end time, which will rehearse Christ’s own last days on earth.

TWO CLEAR TRUTHS

Certain truths now stand out. First, Jesus teaches clearly that his First Advent forensically embraced the Second Advent. He taught this when he expanded the Daniel prophecy of his First Advent to include his Second. Therefore, to rightly understand the cross, we must see its impact on God, humanity and the universe as a whole. The cross was, in a real sense—though not a materially manifest sense—‘the end of the world’ (compare John 12:31; Rom. 13:11-12; 16:20; 1 Cor 10:11; 1 Thess. 4:15; Heb. 1:2; 9:26; James 5:9; 1 John 2:17).

DANIEL 8:14: ITS MEANING FOR TODAY

This climactic verse of the prophecy of Daniel 8, like many other Old Testament prophecies, had meaning for the Old Testament Church, though its complete accomplishment and fulfillment has been reserved for the end of time.

Our Lord’s Olivet sermon (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) delivered several days before the cross, is another example of this (Joel 2:28-32). The Feast of Dedication in John 10:22 means Hannukah, the commemoration of the Cleansing of the Sanctuary from the defilement by Antiochus Epiphanes—and our Lord joined in that commemoration. Matthew 24:15 alludes to the Antichrist prophecies of Daniel, all of these were understood, both by the Jewish people and the early Christian church, as applying first to Antiochus and then to later fulfillments of Antichrist.

All the climaxes of Daniel’s prophecies point to the final establishment of the Kingdom of God at the return of Christ. The falling of the stone, the judgement scene in Daniel 7, the restoring of the Sanctuary, Michael standing up, the making an end of sin and bringing in of everlasting righteousness—all have their final accomplishment at the very end of time.

But the eschatological prophecies often have a spiritual fulfillment before the literal. There is to be a shaking spiritually in the world, before the shaking of heaven and earth. The cosmic signs will have a spiritual fulfillment before the literal (see the discussion in Crisis on Rev. 6:12-14); and it is similarly, the will of God, that there be a restoring of gospel truth to Christ’s people, in order that the Gospel of the Kingdom might be proclaimed to all the world. ‘The Christian Church—the church invisible—is God’s present Sanctuary on Earth, and its great need is a fuller grasp of the everlasting gospel, in order to be able to proclaim it in the power of the Spirit.

It is significant that the entire eschatology of the New Testament finds its seeds in Daniel 8:14 and its elaboration in Daniel 9:24-27. Daniel 9:24, in pointing to the final blessings of God’s Kingdom, gives us both the immediate blessings in the dispensation of the Spirit following the Cross, and the ultimate blessings of the consummation at the return of Christ. Thus it is not strange that the key term of 8:14 variously translated ‘cleansed’, ‘restored’, ‘justified’, ‘vindicated’, occurs again in 9:24—‘to bring in everlasting righteousness’.

The New Testament also clearly teaches that every individual is a temple for the indwelling of Deity. As such, we should, by God’s grace, cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit that we might be suitable vessels for the mighty work of the Third Member of the Godhead in the coming global Pentecost.

This strikes the keynote of grace. Only Christ could bring in gratuitous justification (righteousness) for his people. Our works and prayers and hopes could not do it. Christ is the end of the law as regards securing righteousness (see Rom. 10:4. It is important to know that in the Greek language righteousness and justification are the same word.)

The prayer of the saints in Revelation 6:10: ‘How long, O Lord, Holy and True, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood …’ is also commentary on Daniel 8:14 beginning with the same enquiry of ‘how long?’ and pleading for the verdict of righteousness in the final judgement. Compare also Revelation 15:2-4 where the saved on the Eternal Shore rejoice in the vindication for which they have longed.

To apply Daniel 8:14 to an event in the 19th Century, is contrary to the recurring parallelism of thought in both Daniel and Revelation. That climactic verse (the high point of all of Daniel’s symbolic presentations—after it, all is literal explanation) promises the most glorious events in the history of the universe, inaugurated at the Cross and consummated at the Coming. Therefore, rejoice now in the ‘good, glad, and merry tidings which make the heart to sing and the feet to dance’. Christ has accomplished for every Believer, the securing of the favourable verdict of the last judgement—ours now, instantaneously, by faith and soon to be ratified for eternity. The Cross justified Christ’s Sanctuary (the Church of the twice-born) and very soon, a cleansed universe will resonate with the music of everlasting praise.

ENDNOTES:
1. Dale Moody, The Eschatology of Hal Lindsay, p. 271.