Fourth Quarter 2004 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"Daniel"

Insights to Lesson 12:
When Kings Go to War
December 11-17

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

When nations go to war it is either because of the affirmation or the denial in the practice of liberty of conscience in some form or other. The struggle for liberty of conscience is the main theme of Daniel chapters 10 and 11; furthermore, in the study of the history of nations, one thing in particular stands out: so long as a nation grants to its subjects liberty of conscience as a right, and not a mere privilege, it stands. On the other hand, when a nation understands, then rejects for the last time, and condemns the practice of freedom of conscience and choice that nation falls. Affirmation or denial of this principle can be traced throughout the history of the great empires of prophecy from ancient Egypt down to modern times. This is becoming a major issue of our day.

Every war on earth is a reflection of the war that began in heaven, which was over liberty of conscience. The two leading contending principles were then, and are now, freedom and force. We today must learn this lesson for we stand at the crossroads of affirmation or denial of the great principle of liberty of conscience. The lesson applies to churches as well as to nations and likewise to individuals.

Daniel 10 presents to us a view from behind the scenes regarding heaven’s interest in the affairs of earth. The reason that both Gabriel and Michael came to earth was to defend the heaven ordained right of freedom of choice both for God’s people and for Cyrus, king of Persia, who Satan was seeking to coerce and thus prevent the fulfillment of God’s word concerning His people. The devil fought to deny the great principle of liberty of conscience and choice.

In verse one of this chapter, Daniel said he “had understanding of the vision.” The Hebrew term “vision” is mareh, the same word used for the “vision” concerning the 2300 year prophecy (see 9:23; 8:26a, 27). Daniel 10 and 11 cover all time periods recorded in his book: the 490 years (Dan. 9:24-27); the 2300 years (Dan. 8:14); the 1260, 1290, and 1335 years (Dan. 7:25; 12:7, 11, 12).

Let’s consider the outline of prophetic history as given in the eleventh chapter of Daniel with the principle of liberty of conscience in mind. Although Persia and Greece are not the main actors of this chapter, they introduce Rome in its two deadly phases: paganism and papalism. The main point in this chapter is the struggle over liberty of conscience as it relates particularly to Rome and the people of God. Following is an outline (at times extended) to guide us in our study:

1. Medo-Persian Prophetic History (11:1, 2)

   1. Three kings

      1. Most likely Cambyses, Smerdis, and Darius the Persian.

   2. The fourth king: Artaxerxes (Ahasuerus of the book of Esther). In 457 he completed the three-fold decree, begun by Cyrus, to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple (see Ezra 6:14). According to Daniel 9:25-27 that decree extended to the First Advent Movement and the crucifixion of Christ in 31 A.D. The Second Advent Movement of 1840-44 and the beginning of Christ’s closing work of atonement in the sanctuary of heaven also had its starting time with the giving of that that decree (Dan. 9:20-23; 8:14). The principle at stake with Artaxerxes and the law of Persia was liberty of conscience as recorded in the book of Esther (consider Mordecai, Esther, and Haman who denied the principle). If the law of Persia had stood as Haman designed, Artaxerxes would have denied liberty of conscience to the Jews, would have executed them, and thus would not have issued the third and final decree that completed God’s command to restore Jerusalem and the temple as recorded in Ezra 6:14. This was the same issue played out earlier during the reign of Cyrus as recorded in Daniel 10.

   3. Dropping down to verse 31 of chapter 11 and comparing the language and the additional time elements of Dan. 12 with 11:31, regarding the taking away of “the daily” and the placing of “the abomination of desolation,” we have a time frame for this verse and those which follow in Daniel 11. Finding the years in history for the activity predicted in 11:31 are 508 A.D. when French King Clovis became the champion defender of the church of Rome and took away the “daily,” the first phase of Rome (pagan), and 538 when the “abomination of desolation,” the second phase (the papacy), was placed and headquartered in Rome. This latter year the pope, by Roman law, assumed control over Christianity based on the international decree of Emperor Justinian.

2. Greek Prophetic History (11:3-15)

   1. Alexander The Great (vss. 3, 4)

      1. Broken (died) in 323 B.C. His kingdom was divided between his four leading generals: Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy of whom the last two became the most prominent.

   2. The Syrian-Egyptian Wars (vss. 5-15)

      1. “King of the South”: Ptolemy.

         1. King’s daughter: Berenice. A marriage alliance between the two kingdoms, designated by the compass directions of north and south, failed. Fighting continued for about 100 years. Palestine was a buffer state between these two kingdoms. Most of the battles were fought on Palestinian soil.

      2. “King of the North”: Seleucus. His capital was located in Babylon.

      3. “Tens of thousands”: 40,000 Jews were slain by Ptolemy Philopator in 213 B.C.

         1. “But he will not prevail” (vs. 12). This slaughter signaled the disintegration of Ptolemy’s empire. The issue: liberty of conscience.

         2. Maccabean family led Israel to gain Jewish independence in 168 B.C., but failed (vs. 14)

3. The Prophetic History of Pagan Rome (11:16-28)

   1. “Daughter of women” (vs. 17): A Hebrew expression meaning a beautiful woman, used here depicting God’s people (see Jer. 6:2). In 161 B.C. The Jews and the Romans made a “League” of friendship and protection. This led to Rome’s dominion over the Jews.

   2. “A ruler” (vss. 18, 19): Julius Caesar’s life and assassination by a group of republican “friends” led by Cassius and Brutus in 44 B.C. They feared that Julius intended to establish a monarchy ruled by himself because the citizens of Rome gave to him, by mandate in 45 B.C., dictatorship for life.

   3. “Raiser of taxes” (vs. 20): Augustus Caesar. God used Augustus to bring Mary to Bethlehem. Augustus did it for the purpose of a census and taxation, but God’s purpose was for Jesus to be born there (see Luke 2:1-3; Micah 5:23). Augustus died peacefully in bed, unusual for a ruler in those days.

   4. “Vile person” (vs. 21): Tiberius Caesar.

      1. “Prince of the Covenant”: Christ (see Dan. 8:25; 9:27; Mal. 3:1). Christ was “broken” (crucified) on false charges. Here we observe the most blatant rejection of liberty of conscience, and this against the Author of freedom of conscience.

   5. Flashback: Rome ascended to military and political power through deceit (vss. 23, 24).

   6. Rome’s conflict with Egypt (vss. 25-27).

      1. Two king’s bent to evil (vs. 27): After the death of Julius Caesar, Octavius and Mark Antony divided the empire. They were brothers-in-law who professed great friendship while planning war against each other. Octavius defeated Antony in the battle of Actim in 31 B.C. Octavius took the title of Caesar Augustus. The whole civilized world was then united under one ruler.

   7. Fast forward: Rome makes war on the Christian church (vs. 28).

      1. From the time of Nero and for nearly 250 years the devil, through Rome, tried to destroy the Christian faith and thus liberty of conscience. About 3 million Christians were slain, but the church remained relatively pure and continued to grow numerically as well as spiritually.

      2. “Return to his own land”: Signifies cessation of open hostility against the king of the south (vs. 25).

      3. “His heart shall be moved against the Holy Covenant”: The gospel of Christ comes under attack.

4. A Prophetic History of the Papacy

   1. Union of Church and State (vss. 29-31)

      1. “Forsaking the Holy Covenant” (vs. 30): Compromise and desertion. As a consequence persecution (the “rage against the Holy Covenant”) ceased. The church was greatly honored, but greatly corrupted. She forsook Christ and His gospel for worldly honor, in turning first from the teaching of justification by faith because of pagan doctrines brought into the church through the so-called “Church Fathers.” She continued to turn from the gospel and the Sabbath under Constantine’s Sunday law. The teaching of the Sabbath represents both justification by faith and its consequent: liberty of conscience. Later on in the continuum of the history of the middle ages these three teachings were totally denounced and to a large degree eradicated.

      2. “The daily” taken away (vs. 31): Pagan Rome as previously studied in Dan. 8:11-13.

      3. “Abomination of desolation” (vs. 31): Papal Rome took the place of pagan Rome. This was accomplished in 538 and lasted 1260 years ending in 1798--the beginning of “the time of the end” (11:35, 40; 12:4). The great battle during this time was over liberty of conscience. To all appearances liberty of conscience ceased to exist.

   2. The time of the dark ages was high noon for the papacy (vss. 32-39), but it was the midnight of the world (when religious freedom was under repeatedly fierce attacks).

5. God’s People

   1. “The people who know their God” (11:32, 33): Reformers such as the Waldensians, Hugenots, Wycliff, Huss, Jerome, Luther, the Wesleys, Roger Williams, etc. The one common theme proclaimed by these and all other faithful Protestant groups was/is that of faith in Christ and the essence of faith: liberty of conscience.

   2. For centuries the people of God testified, even in death, to the power of His word.

   3. “Holpen with a little help” (11:34, KJV). The new world opened up (1492-1620) and many of the persecuted fled to America from Europe. Compare Rev. 12:16, “And the earth helped the woman.” God prepared for the “woman,” the church, a place where she and all others were free to worship the Creator and Redeemer according to the dictates of conscience, OR TO NOT WORSHIP HIM AT ALL. (When a nation or a church denies the infidel his God-given right to freedom of choice, that nation or that church denies the faith of Jesus, liberty of conscience, the government of heaven, and God Himself.)

6. The Time of the End . . . and After . . . and Liberty of Conscience

   1. “The time of the end” (11:35): 1798.

   2. Self-exaltation (11:36-39). Compare Dan. 7:8, 25; 8:25; Rev. 13:5, 6. In 2 Thess. 2:3, 4 Paul stated plainly that “the man of sin,” the papacy, would continue until the Second Advent. Although the papacy lost the political power of the state in 1798, she continued to boast and to make decrees just as if the pope was some kind of a magnified god (11:36,37). (The pope was in an attitude of denial concerning his captivity and the deadly wound of papal political power.) In 1866 Pope Pius IX in his encyclical Quanta cura, issued a syllabus of errors among which he placed Bible societies and decreed that “Pests of this sort must be destroyed by all possible means.”

   3. Earlier this same pope wrote in another Encyclical Letter August 15, 1854: “The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error--a pest of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.” In his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, he pronounced a curse on “those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious worship.” The papacy works best within dictatorships rather than in democratic forms of government to suppress liberty of conscience.

   4. In democracies where liberty of conscience is held as a sacred trust the papacy knows she cannot control the masses of people. To this day, she continues to advocate the falsely so-called “divine right of kings.” Her control over kings enables her to control the masses.

   5. Justification by faith is the basis for liberty of conscience. Luther rightly taught that “Liberty is the very essence of faith” (cited in The Great Controversy, p. 189).

   6. The principle of liberty of conscience is a fundamental and governing principle within the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States.

   7. The message of 1888 included liberty of conscience (see especially Jones’ and Waggoner’s articles in the religious liberty journal of the day, The American Sentinel). Following the disastrous experience of the church leadership in Minneapolis, God sent Jones to Washington to stop the re-establishment of the papacy, which would have occurred quickly with the planned passage of the proposed national Sunday law then making its way through committees of the legislative branch of government. As a consequence of that law, liberty of conscience would have been denied ultimately through legislative action.

   8. Preparation on the part of God’s people for laws against conscience is found in the message and experience of justification by faith in the end time setting of the “latter rain.” God would not allow legislation against liberty of conscience to be passed because He knew that His people could not have stood against the horrendous onslaught of the last days with a rejected message of Minneapolis.

   9. Before the time comes for world-wide rejection of liberty of conscience the “loud cry” message of Minneapolis must swell from its beginning in 1888 to the ending experience of the “latter rain.”

   10. The time will come when liberty of conscience will be hated even by a majority of Christians, so-called. Today we see the shape of things to come by studying the lessons of prophecy and history.

   11. Justification by faith will be attacked as in the past.

   12. Liberty of conscience will be denied again as western nations shift away from “common law” and retreat back to papal “canon law” and the principles of the Inquisition.

   13. Then, “at that time” when the “loud cry” of the third angel swells to the greatness that God designed and destined it to be, we may be certain that the message of justification by faith along with its consequent and concomitant teaching of liberty of conscience will be attacked with the ferociousness of wild and uncontrollable beasts representative of the warring kings of earth. “At that time Michael shall stand up” (Dan. 12:1). This follows immediately the time when “tidings out of the east and out of the north” infuriate pontiffs, potentates, caliphs, and the people of earth. These will unite and go forth to destroy and annihilate God’s faithful ones. The primary issues at stake then will be justification by faith and liberty of conscience represented in the Sabbath. These teachings will be attacked with the full force of the pagan principle of salvation by works and its undeviating consequence--the denial of freedom of choice. These teachings and practices will be outlawed by legal enactments in every nation on earth.

   14. Freedom and force lie at the very foundation of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. This then will be the final struggle for world supremacy--”When Kings Go to War” in their final battle against “the Lamb of God,” King Jesus, in the person of His remnant people (see Rev. 17:12-14). This is the time when “Michael shall stand” for His people, and He will defeat the warring nations, and reestablish liberty of conscience. This freedom will last forever because it is an eternal principle of God’s government headquartered in heaven. Maranatha!

—Gerald L. Finneman

Read the study notes for lesson 13