Dr. David Jeremiah - The Handwriting on the Wall: Secrets from the Prophecies of Daniel

2019 Dr. David Jeremiah and C. C. Carlson

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ISBN 978-0-7852-2964-3 (eBook)

Epub Edition November 2019 9780785229643

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jeremiah, David

The handwriting on the wall: secrets from the prophecies of Daniel / by David Jeremiah with C.C. Carlson.

p. cm.

ISBN 9780785229520

1. Bible. O.T. DanielProphecies. I. Carlson, Carole C. II. Title.

BS1556.J47 1992

224.5015dc20

9223120

CIP

Printed in the United States of America

19 20 21 22 23 LSC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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To the men and women who pray and dream with me each week at the senior staff meeting of Shadow Mountain Community Church

CONTENTS

I n a questioning age, where are the answers? Where is our world going? Are moral absolutes relevant in our society? Has the arms race ceased and peace in our time become a reality, or is this a historic lull before the storm?

We watch the news and are outraged by another national scandal or international conflict that leaves us reeling like a spaceship out of control. We ask why, oh why, are these things happening?

Many years ago when I began to study the Bible, one of the most intriguing characters I encountered was Daniel. I didnt understand many of his prophecies or whether they were even applicable to my life, but as the events of our day begin to unroll, I realize that his story has such far-reaching significance that we must take him out of the lions den and discover how his message speaks to our own lives and times.

If we wish to understand today what will happen in the future, we should place the books of Revelation and Daniel between the bookends of our thinking and keep them in perspective as we are involved in these exciting, fateful days.

Daniels book has a theme of such simplicity that the most brilliant minds in the world have been unable to grasp it. It is just this: God is in charge. No one understood that better than Daniel. Centuries ago he deciphered some strange signs written by an unseen hand.

Today, more than at any time in history, we should be able to look at our perplexing planet and say that we, too, are able to see the handwriting on the wall.

T he memo said, top secret. Every person in the Oval Office had been given orders to arrive promptly at 8 a.m. No one must know, especially CNN, that the president of the United States, the vice president, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Council, congressional leaders, and selected members of the cabinet had been called for this executive briefing. The object: to hear a futuristic projection of the rise and fall of our planets major countries and their leaders. This was not a strategy meeting. This was to be the unveiling of the destiny of the world.

The president never looked more serious. He sat facing his advisers, men and women of keen intelligence whom he had entrusted with decisions that could affect millions of lives. With his fingers pressed together under his chin, he looked like he was praying. Considering the state of the world, his attitude was logical. When he signaled to an armed guard, the door was opened to allow one man to enter. The man hesitated for a moment and glanced at the illustrious gathering of military and political might. The president pointed to a chair directly in front of the polished executive desk. The man took his seat and faced the leadership advisers of the most powerful nation on earth.

The secretary of state cleared his throat. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs wiped his forehead nervously. The secretary of defense looked at his polished shoes. Tension was high.

Gentlemen, the president said soberly, you are about to hear the future of the world as we know it. Listen carefully, for your very lives are at stake.

WHO WAS THIS MAN?

Is this an imaginary scenario, or could it happen someday? What is fiction today may easily be fact tomorrow.

This scene did occur in another country with different players. One man, divinely inspired, accurately prophesied the rise and fall of empires and their rulers. Scholars have scoffed and doubters have discredited, but history has substantiated his words and the future will verify his predictions. Believing or disbelieving what this man said could change our lives forever.

Who was this man? Some of his critics say he wrote his book of history and prophecy after the fact. They might compare him to the members of the modern-day Procrastinators Club, who predicted on January 1, 1992, that the Persian Gulf War would be over in 1991, that Gorbachev would topple, and the Soviet Union disintegrate. We just now got around to our predictions, the president of the club said.

Daniel is the man. Yet no matter how his critics have tried to discredit him or belittle the book that bears his name, they have failed miserably. Their names are forgotten, and his name lives on as a man of intense integrity and profound piety.

We cannot pass him off today as just the man in the lions den or a dreamer of surrealistic dreams. To know Daniel is to learn how to live today and look at the future with confidence.

This is not merely a biography of someone we should know, but an outline of our future. Its not the images in a crystal ball or the babbling of a clairvoyant, but the truth contained in the Book of books.

DANIEL ON THE WITNESS STAND

The prosecutors of Daniel are the liberal scholars who find he is an embarrassment to them. They level their energy in trying to destroy his credibility. He has been under attack more than the book of Genesis. According to his critics, prophecy is an impossibility. There is no such thing as foretelling events to come; therefore, a book that contains predictions must have been written after the fact. They claim his book is fiction written like prophecy in order that it might be more interesting to the readers.