And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai . Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great. And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.( Daniel 8:2-6)
I believe that the study of prophecy is very similar to painting pictures with “paint by number”. At first, you fill in numbers with various colors and can’t make out what the picture actually is. Eventually as you keep laboring, the picture begins to emerge , and the details become more evident and clear.
When I began the Christian life, I knew one thing about Eschatology, Jesus was coming back! As I made scripture my life’s study, details began to emerge;the prophesied rebirth of the Jewish State,Israel, the worldwide siege around Jerusalem and Judea (the West Bank), the whole world will turn on Israel, the role of Islam in endgame events, the role of the United Nations also, …etc. .
Sometimes the clear vision of end times events is held up because of faulty teaching, almost like getting the wrong color in the wrong number. I have found that we must be ever open to scripture and not cling too tightly to our previous understanding of prophecy.
The picture is beginning to emerge, though of course I do not have all of the details, but those who have ears to hear are beginning to see the vision of the Parousia and the events leading to it.
For years I have pored over the prophecies of Daniel, as Jesus told us we should in Matthew 24:15, but I must confess that something has been pointed out to me, by a teacher named Joel Richardson, which I have never seen before. I don’t necessarily agree with all of Joel’s conclusions, but I have to admit that he is right about the point I am about to go into.
The great insight which may seem small to some of you, (but is radical to me) is that the vision of Daniel 8 is for the end times.
So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.(Daniel 8:17)
And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.(Daniel 8:19)
I had been taught, and have taught(correctly) that Daniel 8 was a prediction of the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire(the Ram) and the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great,(The Goat). Daniel predicted these things in the 6th century BC and everything he said was fulfilled in the fourth century BC. This vision is in line with Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s vision in Daniel 2, giving more details of the Persian and Greek periods.
But what I didn’t notice is the repetitious angelic announcement that this vision would be fulfilled in the “time of the end”, the last days of the “indignation” the time of Israel’s subjection to Gentile powers.
There is a prophetic law of dual fulfillment, so I believe I was right about the earlier fulfillment of the vision, but I missed the fact that this clear vision is for the “time of the end”, and is a very significant insight into the near future of two major World Powers which have arisen in prominence very recently, Persia(Iran) and Greece (Turkey).
We need to consider this very carefully…
Pastor Bill Randles Blog 
Great article, Pastor Bill. Daniel is clear that the vision is for the time of the end.
“Greece” in the OT should actually be translated as “Javan”. Javan, if you remember, was the son grandson of Noah (Japeth was his father). He settled in the islands and coast lands of the Mediterranean. Javan included the west coast of modern-day Turkey, Asia Minor.
Isaiah 66:19: “and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations.”
Ezekiel 27:13: “Javan, Tubal, and Meshech traded with you; they exchanged human beings and vessels of bronze for your merchandise.”
Joel Richardson has said for many years to watch Turkey. All the seven churches in Revelation were in Turkey. Interestingly, John writes this to the Church in Pergamum: “13 I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.”
This is off the topic of this article but In other news Joel posted today at twitter that the Hagia Sophia church is to be turned into a mosque in retaliation for the US recognition of Israel’s soverignty over the Golan. From Sputnik News: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201903271073593788-turkey-hagia-mosque-golans/
And speaking of the Golan Heights, FAI Studios just released this video today, “The Golan Heights and the Signs of the Times”:
This video is a stand-alone segment of FAI’s “Covenant and Controversy Part III: The Great Trouble”. I can’t say enough about this series, and the third film remembers King Boris III of Bulgaria. None of Bulgaria’s almost 50,000 Jews were deported out of Bulgaria. They all eventually resettled in Israel. It is a complicated story, but a fascinating one.
Pastor Bill, I do hope you are able to watch these films. Thank you for your messages and insights. I am richly blessed by them!
I posted the Golan Heights video twice. Here is the entire film of Convenant and Controversy Part III:
Jeanne, I’ve only seen part one of this series but it was absolutely excellent. I don’t subscribe to the Islamic anticrist teaching but over the past couple of years, I’ve had the distinct impression (from reading Daniel) that both Turkey and Iran will be major players as we proceed toward the Eschaton. In relation to differing viewpoints I wonder if you have read a most excellent paper by Charles Cooper “Daniel 2 and 7, equal or not equal? He was a professor at Moody Bible Institute until he quit believing in a Pre-trib rapture. It’s an excellent paper and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in prophecy. Here’s a link for anyone interested https://pt.scribd.com/document/272491549/Daniel-2-and-7-Equal-or-Not-Equal-Charles-Cooper
Thank you so much for your reply, RI. I tried to download the link, but unfortunately I don’t have a subscription to the site. I’ll try to look up Charles Cooper to see what else he has written, though, as you’ve piqued my curiosity. There are a couple of his books at Amazon.
I’m glad you liked the first film. FAI Studios has produced high quality, very professionally done films. They are also working with the IDF in Israel to help Syrian refugees, among other projects. I also highly recommend their “King of Shadows” series, which you can find on YouTube. They are under 30 minutes and just awesome! I keep going back and watching them.
Blessings!
After I posted my first reply to you, I went to YouTube to look up Prof. Cooper and realized I had seen this video before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcvHdQZIjZw
Thank you both for your wisdom here and interpreting bible prophesy. I was never that good in history class! Many blessings to all of the Lord’s remnant church.
MARANATHA!!