The Times of the Gentiles


	Chapter Two The Times of the Gentiles Part One To understand the many prophecies that deal with our Lord’s second coming, we must first have a clear understanding of the Biblical period known as the “Times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24). This is the foundation of all “end times” prophecies. The Bible presents it in simplicity and truth, yet the world and sadly, even some of the most independent, fundamental, God fearing, churches in our land today accept as “universal truths” the many misconceptions and deceptions regarding this period of time. Here is where the battle for truth in end times prophecies is fought at its most elemental level, yet few are even aware that there is a battle raging. Our Lord commands all believers to know and understand His Word and the light it thrusts through the darkness of this world (II Timothy 2:15 & 3:14-17). There are four key points to hold in view for the “Times of the Gentiles”: 1) Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until this time is fulfilled. 2) That only four kingdoms will rule during the times of the Gentiles. 3) The fourth kingdom will be distinct from all other kingdoms and will be present in multiple forms. 4) These four kingdoms will rule continuously and successively without pause between any of the kingdoms, until the great and terrible Day of the Lord is fulfilled. First, the Bible testifies that Jerusalem will be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Luke 21:24, Rev. 11:2). Although these two specific verses refer to a period of time during the tribulation, we can also apply them to all of the times of the Gentiles by noting the history of Jerusalem since Nebuchadnezzar prevailed against the city in 606 B. C. In addition, Moses recorded the curse that would come upon Israel if they would not hearken to his commandments. In Leviticus 26:31-33 we read”: And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.” http://www.geocities.com/sapphire2021/dread.html Further, in I Kings 9:3-9, the Lord tells Solomon of the blessings that will be given unto Him if he will walk before him in the same integrity of heart that his father David walked. He also warned him of the curse that would come to his throne and to his children if they turned from his commandments and served other gods and worshiped them: “Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house; . . . and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done this unto this land, and to this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, . . ." (I Kings 9:7-9). Thus God sent his judgement to Israel, Judah, Jerusalem and “this house” by the king of Babylon because Solomon and his children served other gods (I Kings 11:1-13). Therefore the fact that Jerusalem is trodden down by the Gentiles is in itself a marker for the “Times of the Gentiles.” It denotes the starting point in 606 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar came unto Jerusalem and prevailed against Jehoiakim in the third year of his reign (Dan. 1:1). Interestingly, Assyria under Sennacherib never conquered Jerusalem and is not therefore part of the Times of the Gentiles (II Kings 19:32-37). The history of Jerusalem since 606 B.C. confirms that we still remain in the “Times of the Gentiles,” and it predicts when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, when our Lord Jesus himself shall return. Paul declares this time in his epistle to the Romans, chapter 11:25-27: "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” In Zechariah chapters twelve, thirteen and fourteen, we read of the great and terrible day of the Lord when He shall conquer all of the armies of the earth that come up against Jerusalem. It is only on this day that the people of Israel shall have their blindness removed and they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced (Zech. 12:10) and they shall ask what are the wounds in Thine hands (Zech. 13:6), and they shall call on His name and He will say: *“It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.”* (Zech. 13:9). Thus again, it is when the “Deliverer” takes away their sins, on the last day of the tribulation, that their blindness shall end. In chapter one, we investigated how Israel failed to recognize the time of our Lord’s first coming and came under a curse of blindness (Luke 19:37-44). Yet for all this, the Lord will remember His covenant unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and deliver His people from the siege against Jerusalem by all the armies of the earth. On this day, the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, He will descend upon the Mount of Olives cleaving it in two and all of Israel shall look upon Him whom they have pierced, and look upon the wounds in His hands that came from those in the house of His friends (Zech. 12:10, 13:6, 14:1- 15). On this day, the Lord will set up an everlasting kingdom which shall never be destroyed (Dan. 2:44). On this day, as the fullness of the evil of the Gentiles is magnified against Israel, shall the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Therefore, recognizing that Jerusalem shall be trodden down during the times of the Gentiles gives us both the starting and ending points as well as a reminder of where our own salvation comes forth. For it is the casting away of Israel that brought the reconciliation of the world (Romans 11:15). And we must not be wise in our own conceits regarding their blindness knowing that it was through their unbelief that God might have mercy upon all. Paul further exhorts us to show mercy upon Israel that they may obtain mercy as well in Romans11: 30-32: “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” Therefore, as we study about the time of testing that shall soon come upon the whole earth, we must be ever mindful of all that Israel will suffer during the Tribulation and repent of our “lukewarmness” (Rev. 3:14-19). The Lord commands us to be zealous and anoint thine eyes with eye salve that we might see. My brethren, we too are becoming blind to the many false doctrines that have come into our churches. The only eye salve that we have is the Word of God alone, but only for those who are born again, ready and watching. The times of the Gentiles is marred by the “universal truths” of the fourth kingdom, yet for those who place their trust in the true, literal Word of God alone, the truth of the fourth beast will be revealed as it was first revealed to Daniel (Daniel 7:19). 2) That only four kingdoms will rule during the times of the Gentiles. Second, the book of Daniel foretells the four kingdoms that shall rule during the times of the Gentiles. In chapter two, Daniel declared the dream to King Nebuchadnezzar and then interpreted what it meant. The head of gold represented the first kingdom which was Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar himself. This was followed by an inferior kingdom with two rulers from the Medes and the Persians represented by the two arms and chest of silver. A third kingdom then came forth represented by the belly and thighs of brass. This was the Greek empire under the rule of its first king Alexander the Great, who was followed in kind by his four generals after he died at the age of thirty-three. The fourth kingdom located in Rome is strong as iron and subdues all nations and people of the earth. Then the God of heaven will set up his kingdom which will stand forever, wiping away the four kingdoms that rule during the times of the Gentiles. In Daniel chapter seven, the Lord again tells us of the four kingdoms that will rule during these times. However, unlike some commentators which suggest that the lion with eagles wings is England, that the bear is Russia and that the Leopard is the United States, we will instead explore in detail the reasons why this chapter is a second witness to the selfsame kingdoms already discussed in Daniel chapter two. The first kingdom is Babylon as we are told in Daniel 2:36-38: “This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.” Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar was the first king of Babylon at the start of the Times of the Gentiles. © Wayne Blank wblank@execulink.com In Daniel 7:3-4, we are told of the first of four kingdoms in this second vision to Daniel: “And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.” There are some that assert that the lion is first Media-Persia since it is the first kingdom that rises after Belshazzar, and likewise that the lion is England by private interpretations in comparing the Balfour declaration in 1918 giving freedom to Israel just as did Media-Persia through the decree of Cyrus in 536 B.C. The true interpretation is shown by comparing line upon line and precept upon precept to find that the king of Babylon is called both a lion and an eagle with great wings. In Jeremiah 4: 6-7, the Lord warns Israel of the “evil form the North, . . . the lion is come up from his thicket.” In Jeremiah 50:17, the scriptures again speak of the king of Babylon as a lion: “Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.” Although there are several nations including Israel that are called a lion, the king of Babylon is certainly referred to as a lion in these two verses. In Ezekiel 17:3&12, the king of Babylon is also called a great eagle with great wings: "And say, Thus saith the Lord God; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar: . . . Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon;” In Daniel 7:4, the first kingdom that arises out of the sea was *“like a lion,”* and had “*eagle’s wings.”* The king of Babylon has scriptural references calling him both a lion and an eagle with great wings. Further, the second part of Daniel 7:4 refers to the end of the Babylonian kingdom under the hand of Belshazzar whose kingdom was finished on the night that he lifted his heart in pride against the God of Daniel: “. . . I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.” Here Daniel sees the eagles wings *“plucked”* or torn away with sudden force. In Jeremiah 18:7, the Bible uses the word pluck to speak of destroying the nation of Israel. Likewise, Belshazzar was slain on the night of the handwriting on the wall and his kingdom was divided among the Medes and Persians (Daniel 5: 25-30). Interestingly, although Nebuchadnezzar was made to have a heart of a beast for seven years, his kingdom was *“sure to thee”* (Daniel 4: 26) and was not torn away. Belshazzar was further lifted up from the earth with his heart filled with the pride of a man. In Daniel 5:22-23, Daniel admonishes him and states to him: “And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; . . .” Therefore, the lion with eagle’s wings is Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar is he who lifted up himself from the earth against the Lord of heaven filled with pride in his heart. This is the first kingdom during the times of the Gentiles and the same kingdom as the head of gold in Daniel chapter two. This is the kingdom of Babylon. The second kingdom that followed Babylon is Media-Persia as we are told in Daniel 5:30-31: “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.” In Daniel chapter two, the two kings of Media and Persia are represented by the two arms and chest of silver. In Daniel chapter eight, the two kings are represented by a ram with two horns where one was higher than the other and the higher came up last (Dan 8:3). The Bible gives a very definitive interpretation of who the ram is and who the two horns are in Daniel 8:20: *“The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.”* There is no other country except Media-Persia that can fulfill this interpretation. Likewise in Daniel 7:5, he saw a *“second”* beast like a bear which was raised up on one side just as the ram had one horn higher than the other. This bear devoured much flesh and had three ribs in its mouth. The ram with two horns in Daniel chapter eight pushed in three directions: westward (Lydia), northward (Babylon) and southward (Egypt) conquering these three kingdoms while devouring much flesh, just as the bear had three ribs in its mouth. This second kingdom like a bear is the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. The third kingdom is Greece which is represented by the belly and two thighs of brass in Daniel chapter two. The two thighs of brass represent the only two kingdoms that tread down Jerusalem of the four that remained after the death of Alexander the Great. This is shown in exquisite detail throughout the entire chapter eleven of Daniel. Here the Bible shows the succession of the Greek empire under Alexander the Great from the Medes and Persians, then followed by the rule of his four generals in Egypt, Syria, Thrace and Macedonia after his death (Daniel 11:1-4). Yet it is only the king of the North (the Seleucids in Syria) and the king of the south (the Ptolemies in Egypt) that are mentioned throughout the remainder of chapter eleven. Likewise, it was only the Greek kingdoms in Syria and Egypt that at anytime trampled down the streets of Jerusalem as we are told will happen during the times of the Gentiles. These are the two thighs of brass in Daniel chapter two. This demonstrates the predominant theme of the occupation of Jerusalem as a sign of the times of the Gentiles and not as the dominance of any worldwide empire. If the latter were true, then the interpretation of a “break” in these kingdoms could possibly be justified. Yet again, The Bible states that it is only the trampling down of Jerusalem that is a marker of the times of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24, Rev. 11:2). In Daniel 7:6, another beast appeared like a leopard: “After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given it.” This beast has four heads which stand for the four kings that will come out of this kingdom after the fall of Alexander the Great. This is analogous to the Scarlet colored beast in Revelation 17:3 with seven heads which represents the seven kings that the mystery Babylon religion sits upon (Rev. 17:10). Therefore one "head" is symbolic for one "king" in both beasts. In Daniel 8:22 we read of the four kings that will stand up out of this nation and likewise in Daniel 11:4, Alexander the Great’s kingdom is divided toward the four winds of heaven. Secondly, dominion was given to this beast in Daniel 7:6 as it is also given in Daniel 11:3. However, these four kings shall not have the power of the first king of Greece (Daniel 8:21-27, Daniel 11:2-4). Therefore, by the parallel witnesses of Daniel chapters two, seven, eight and eleven, the beast like a leopard with the four heads is the same third kingdom as found in Daniel 2:39. A very interesting puzzle is found in the search for the interpretation of the four wings of a fowl that the beast like a leopard has (Daniel 7:6). The common interpretation is that these four wings represent the four generals that took over the Greek empire after Alexander’s death. Yet again, this remains a private interpretation in that there are no other examples in the Bible of one wing representing one general or one kingdom. Therefore, recognizing that all the references in the Bible speak of “pairs of wings” leads to a very interesting interpretation of the four wings. In Isaiah 8:8, the king of Assyria conquered the land of Israel by stretching his “wings” over the breadth of the land. Likewise, in Ezekiel 17:3, the king of Babylon was symbolized by a great eagle with great wings that overpowered the king of Jerusalem. Neither king literally had wings, but both of these kings prophetically trampled the land and Jerusalem with wings which symbolized their strength. Therefore, applying this witness to the leopard with two pairs of wings, we see the conquest of Israel and Jerusalem foreshadowed by the only two generals of Greece that, with wings of conquest, overcame and tread down Jerusalem. These are the Seleucids in Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt. Thereby putting the entire interpretation together, we first see that Alexander the Great is the first king of Greece that overran the Medes and the Persians (Daniel 8:21). His four generals are seen in the four heads of the leopard. The two thighs of brass in Daniel chapter two are a second witness to the king of north and the king of the south in Daniel chapter eleven that tread down Jerusalem. Therefore, in Daniel chapter seven, the leopard shows all of these elements in one beast. First the leopard itself symbolizes the first king of Greece that overcame Media-Persia. This is followed by the four kingdoms of Egypt, Syria, Thrace and Macedonia ruled by his generals which are symbolized by the four heads. Of these four, only two trampled down Jerusalem again represented by the two pairs of wings of a fowl for the king of the north and the king of the south. Therefore, Daniel 7:6 can only be speaking of the kingdom of Greece as identified by the multitude of cross references in these chapters and any other apparent analogies to the United States of America are left completely in the realm of private interpretation by anyone who would assert this assumption. The fourth kingdom during the Times of the Gentiles is Rome. In 31 B.C., Octavius Caesar defeated the last remaining vestige of the Greek empire at the battle of Actium. Here, Cleopatra, the Macedonian Queen of Egypt and her lover Marc Antony suffered an overwhelming defeat. Thus ended the last Greek kingdom and firmly established the complete rule of the fourth kingdom during the times of the Gentiles. In Daniel 2:40, the fourth kingdom is as strong as iron. In Daniel 7:7, the fourth beast is dreadful and terrible with teeth of iron and it devoured and brake in pieces the whole earth. The fourth kingdom has ten toes in Daniel 2:42 representing the ten kings that shall arise just as the ten horns are ten kings that shall arise in the fourth kingdom of Daniel 7:24. The fourth kingdom in Daniel chapter two has two legs of iron, two feet of iron and clay, and ten toes of iron and clay. The fourth beast in Daniel chapter seven is “diverse” and capable of multiple forms. Therefore, Daniel chapters two and seven give parallel testimonies of all four kingdoms during the times of the Gentiles and they therefore do not represent different testimonies of different kingdoms as some would assert falsely. In the book of Daniel, the Bible testifies of four and only four kingdoms during the times of the Gentiles. This is true even when comparing the many different characters in the book of Revelation that we shall see in the next three chapters. Return to Home Page (www.kjv1611revealed.com)