The Harvest Is Ripe!

(From radio broadcast of Bro. Julius Adewumi)

I want to go to the book of Daniel chapter seven to point out some of the things that the Lord has revealed to us to know the end times, and how soon until the Lord comes.

Daniel recorded all his prophecies, the visitations by angels, his dreams and visions that the Almighty God gave to him. And every one of them was prophetic, telling us about the future, which, from that time, would be the time of the end: our own time. By looking at the prophecies and the signs and the meaning of all those symbols that were given to Daniel, we could say prophetically that we are actually living in the end times. (Daniel 7: 1):

"In the first year of Belshazar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters."

Now remember, in the book of Daniel chapter one, the Bible said that God gave Daniel wisdom and knowledge, and he also gave him spiritual gifts. One of the spiritual gifts was visitations by angels, visions and dreams that God gave to him foretelling the future; and the future from the time of Daniel up to the end of the world were foretold in the book of Daniel. God gave him those visions and God has been doing the same thing to believers at this end time, revealing to us how soon the time is, and what the Lord is about to do. Daniel recorded many of those things that were given to him in dreams and visions.

In verse two of the book of Daniel, "Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea."

Now this is the vision, practically symbolic as far as it was given to Daniel; the meaning was also given to Daniel. And we're just going to look at the meaning given to Daniel and see. By looking back into history, those visions were fulfilled in their time, and for those that are yet to be fulfilled, we will possibly have a better understanding of how they will be fulfilled. Now in verse three Daniel said, he saw 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." God was symbolizing kingdoms of the world from the time of Daniel till the end. These are the kingdoms he said he saw, one beast after another and each beast a little bit different than the one before him, and it actually looked to him that those beasts were running concurrently, because it didn't say one died then the other one took over. The first was like a lion and then the lion was still around when the next one came and became dominant. Another one came after that which also was dominant, but the previous two were still hanging around.

So this was prophesying of the kingdoms from the time of Daniel. Daniel started writing around the time of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. A Babylonian empire was ruling the world when Daniel started writing his books. From the book of Daniel chapter one, it was Babylonian Empire that was ruling the world. Then after him came the Medo-Persian Empire that conquered Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom.

Let's continue. (Daniel 7:15) "And I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

v.16: I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. "

And here is the interpretation in verse seventeen. (Daniel 7:17) "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth."

That was the summary of everything, the four kings means four major kingdoms, and a kingdom is formed around a king. Like Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was the kingdom of Babylon. And the days of Alexander the Great, from Greece, was the time of the Greecian Empire. It said there are four kings that arise out of the earth. "But the saints of the most high shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever."

Now let me talk a little bit about the last verse, verse eighteen. God was symbolizing the kingdoms of the world with beasts, then God symbolized his own kingdom, the kingdom of God, with a son of man. All the other kingdoms of the world were represented by beasts, animals, lions, leopards, bear, and one that had iron teeth and looked like a leopard but a strange one, with seven heads and ten horns. Daniel didn't know what to call that animal. He just said it had feet like a bear. That was the end-time kingdom, which is what it is right now: kingdoms of the world that look strange, full of all technological advancement that is unusual, that was unknown before in the days of Daniel. That is the kingdom you are seeing - the kingdom of the world right now - represented by the fourth beast. It started from the Roman Empire, and it was the same Roman Empire that became the European Economic Community and the Western world. Or, you could say the United Nations was represented in that fourth beast. The 4th beast was talking and saying all blasphemous things throughout until the end. But during this time was when the Son of man was seen in verse thirteen.

Now many scholars have thought this Son of man is the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Bible didn’t say it was the messiah. It said that this Son of man was a symbol just like the other beasts that were seen in this book of Daniel chapter seven, were symbols of kingdoms; But God would not use animal to represent his kingdom so he used a man. And this man in this vision is representing not just the Christ; it is actually representing the saints of God, which is the church of God headed by Christ. So Christ is the head and we are the body, which is the Son of man that came to the Ancient of days to take over the kingdoms of the world in verse thirteen.

(Daniel 7:14). "And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not be destroyed. " The Son of man is actually representing the kingdom of God. Just like we were talking about the beasts represented the kingdom of Rome, or the kingdom of Babylon, or the kingdom of Greece, or the kingdom of Medo-Persia, this Son of man represented the kingdom of God. Christ is the head of that kingdom and we, the church, the believers, are the body.

As if to say Jesus Christ is not God, some people always point to this Bible verse to distinguish between Jesus and God. But know that this Bible verse was not representing Jesus it was representing the saints of the most high according to the angel. The angel said it right here in verse eighteen. That Son of man is representing the saints of the most high, which take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. I hope you understand what I'm saying here: four beasts and then a Son of man. One beast after another took over the kingdoms of this world, then at the end of the fourth beast came the Son of man who would take over everything forever and this Son of man is representing the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is headed by Christ, and the body of Christ is the church - believers, the redeemed saints of God.

So that is what this symbol, the Son of man, represents. It represents the saints of the most high God. And Christians are called the saints of the Most High God. This preaching of the word of God is to make you aspire to want to be one of the saints of God if you are not a saint already. Or, aspire to want to be one of the overcomers like the bible said, he that overcometh shall inherit all things.

So all these kingdoms of the world that you see right now, all the beautiful cities and the worldly affairs, the things the world is running after, that we classify as ungodly, will all be left behind when the world is destroyed. This whole planet will be given back to the saints of the most high and we shall reign upon this planet forever and ever. This is what the Bible is saying here, and we invite you to become one of the saints of God.

How do you become one of the saints? Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and let him come into your heart and change you from within so that your sins be forgiven and that you don't sin anymore. That is when you become a saint of the Most High God.

Now let me continue with this exhortation here in verse nineteen of Daniel chapter seven. Daniel said he would want to know more about these mysteries. (Daniel 7:19) "Then I will know the truth of the fourth beast." He wanted to know this fourth beast which was completely different from the other three:

"which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows."

Daniel wanted to know the detail of this particular fourth beast, but there was no detail given, as you'll see in a moment, they didn't actually give him any detail. What does this seven head or the ten horns mean or what does the iron teeth mean? The angel simply summarized it. We don't need to worry about the detail, we just know that the kingdom at the end of the world will be diverse, so many brands of this kingdom.

We can look at it right now, what is the kingdom at the end of the world right now? What kingdom is ruling the world? You can't say that it's the American kingdom, it's not one single country that is ruling. But you can say there are super powers. In the '70s or '80s you could say there was the Russian super power and the Chinese super power also, and you have the western super power. But now it's only the western, when you say the western it's not just the American you've got the European community right now, and they're also a super power. So what you can say about super power is that they are just a conglomeration of big governments with so much advance technology, advance in military stature and military strength, and all the computerization. That is what made this fourth beast strange to people like Daniel in his own generation. That's why it was represented to him as a beast with so many parts: brass nails, iron teeth, feet like bear and mouth like lion and all those types of things to specify that this is just a conglomeration of nations. They are all doing terrible things and are powerful, smashing countries, because it said it destroyed something it stamped it down. Almost like what the United Nations is doing right now: it would send a bunch of soldiers from different countries to put down violence, or rebellion, like what happened in Yugoslavia or Bosnia some years ago. They put down all those rebellion and crushed it, and that is what this is prophesying.

This 4^th beast could therefore represent the United Nations, the conglomeration of all these countries in a body, a government body that has enough military to crush any rebellion that may rise up from any country.

The Bible has predicted it here in the book of Daniel. The angel didn't give him the meaning of the fourth beast we are only looking back at history and seeing that it can represent nothing else other than the United Nations Organization, which is an alliance of all countries in a new world-order, world police. The United Nations is like a worldwide police, policing everything that is going on in the world.

(Daniel 7:21) "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them." Now that verse right here means that there will be persecution by this last horn. The horn represents another king that came small but subdued three and came among the ten horns. We always say the ten horns represent the ten European communities. Out of them came another one that subdued three. They said it had eyes. That could also represent the religious part of it which could be the Papacy in the Vatican kingdom. We can't emphatically say that these are what it means other than to say what the meaning could be. So all of these, is our opinion.

There was persecution: we know that in the earlier generations in 300 and 400 AD it was the Roman Catholicism that had so much power in Europe and persecuted all the Protestants all over Europe. That is why many people fled to the Americas so that they could have freedom of religion in America.

The little horn that came up among the ten horns can be said to represent the Roman Catholicism where the Papacy is the head, the little horn, because it had eyes: spiritual; and it's not like a government of a nation, it's a religious body. And that religious body became so powerful persecuting the Christians.

You can also see in the book of Revelations chapter thirteen that the Anti-Christ will also persecute the saints. Now if you look at the Anti-Christ beast, it was also presented as a beast with seven heads and ten horns. That was in the book of Revelations chapter thirteen. It was also a beast with seven heads and ten horns, and that was written many years after Daniel wrote his own. So we can say this anti-Christ beast has also been mentioned in the book of Daniel that it will persecute the saints. This anti-Christ beast will be part and parcel of this fourth beast in the book of Daniel. The fourth beast of the book of Daniel is included in the anti-Christ kingdom that will come at the end of the world.

Now let's go on and see what the angel said in verse twenty-two. (Daniel 7:22) "Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." This fourth beast will continue until the saints take over the kingdom. So this means this fourth beast is not just the Roman Empire that was destroyed in the 400, 500, or 600 AD. It started from then and extended until the end of the world. The fourth beast is not just representing the old Roman Empire of that time, but the same Roman Empire that extended until the end of the world. Even though the Roman Empire, which started in the days of the Caesars, splitted into pieces, it was still the Roman Empire that went on to be the European countries and the western powers. That is what the Bible is telling us here.

The angel said, (Daniel 7:23) "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it into pieces." And what does that mean that it will tread it down and break it into pieces? Just think about it: it was the European countries that divided all the lands into small, small countries. The African countries were divided and colonized; all the borders of countries were divided by the Europeans, by the explorers which came from Britain, from France, from Spain. They were the ones that divided all the lands into pieces and joined several tribes together that were not supposed to be one single country.

Remember the problems in the old Yugoslavia, which is now broken into pieces. Many other tribes in Africa are always in conflict, wanting to separate from one another. These are all caused by the fact that these European countries made the division of all the lands. The Bible has prophesied that it would be this beast that would divide the lands into pieces. …and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

They divided the lands and put several tribes together to form a country. If you go and search the history you will see that the borders were divided by the French, the British, the Germans, the Spanish. Those are the European countries that divided the land all the way, even in North America: They were divided into countries, Canada, Mexico, the United States, etc. This is what has been prophesied by Daniel that the European countries would divide the land into pieces, and they are in this fourth beast.

(Daniel 7:24) "And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings."

Now that is representing the anti-Christ beast, which will rise up at the end and do all these wonders that we see in the book of Revelations chapter thirteen. This anti-Christ beast will rise up out of the ten kings and do all the rest of the wonders at the end of the world. And it says, "…and will think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time."

(Daniel 7:26) "But the judgement shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. "

We are the saints and we, Christians, shall take over the kingdom at this end of the world out of the hand of the anti-Christ and reign forever and ever. That is the summary of the plan of God from the time of Daniel until the time of the end.

Now I want to invite you to be a Christian to be one of the saints, because this worldly kingdom will be destroyed and burnt up. If you want to be part of the kingdom that is to come, you have to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Invite him to be your Lord and savior now and forget about these kingdoms of this world no matter what country you belong to, and let your own kingdom be coming. Be part of the kingdom that's coming that is going to take over, which is the kingdom of God.

If you're a Christian and have been listening to this radio broadcast I urge you to aspire that you can come to the fullness of the stature of Christ; That is our goal as believers. Now if you are not a Christian or you're just a church member trying to do good but you don't even know what it means to be born again, you are not sure whether you have been washed from your sins? The word of God specifically says anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ has eternal life. (Jn.3). You've got to believe that utterance of Jesus and then invite him to come and take over your life because he gives power unto the believer that he calls being born again. And it is this power that make us to be a new creature in Christ, the Bible said, "as many as receive him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God…" (John 1:12a).

+++++++++++++++++++

Internet homepage: