Fourth Quarter 2004 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"Daniel"

Insights to Lesson 13b:
The Time of the End
(or the End of Time)
December 18-24

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

A kind-hearted subscriber chided us, not for what we said in Part 1, but for what we had neglected to say. We had left too much unexplored of the riches buried in Daniel 12.

What we have tried to emphasize throughout this quarter is the intimate link between the “gospel” embedded in Daniel and the “most precious message” of Christ’s righteousness that “the Lord in His great mercy sent” to us in 1888. Side by side with the unique message of justification by faith that was sent to us in 1888 came the heart-gripping presentations of the sanctuary message by A. T. Jones in his sermons at the 1893 and 1895 General Conference Sessions, and with his little book later, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection. Chapter 12 of Daniel comes alive when viewed in the light of the 1888 message.

Verses 1-4, righteousness by faith and the Day of Atonement:

“The time of the end” is a time when God’s people are blessed with an “increase of knowledge.” We have traditionally understood this to be scientific and engineering knowledge, which has indeed “increased” exponentially since the end of the 1260 years of papal oppression. But in its context, verse 4 is concerned with “turning many to righteousness” and becoming “wise” for eternal life. “He that winneth souls is wise” (Prov. 11:30, KJV). This “increase” has to do with understanding the gospel!

Fear of “the time of trouble” (admittedly, will be the worst in human history) is dissipated by this “increase of knowledge”--that’s more than scientific knowledge. Only “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). In other words, the “increase of knowledge” is a clearer grasp of what the Son of God accomplished on His cross for “every man.” This will be the truth that the fourth angel brings to lighten the “earth” in Revelation 18:1-4. Not only does it “cast out” fear, it also inscribes for deliverance one’s name in “the book” of life and the book of remembrance that God keeps.

Verses 5-10, what is “finished”? God’s work?

Several translations render verse 7 (“scatttering the power of the holy people”) as the end of the persecution of God’s people at the close of the 1260 years, and as the sign when “all these things shall be finished.” If that is correct, the passage takes us back to post-1798 A.D. history.

However, the Hebrew word translated “scatter” attracts interest. The KJV has “scatter the power of the holy people,” and the NKJV has, “the power of the holy people has been completely shattered.” That seems a strange way to speak of what happened at the end of the 1260 years after 1798.

The Hebrew word for “scatter” is nawfatz, a primitive root to “dash to pieces or scatter” (Strong, #5310). The LXX has, “when an end is put to the dispersion.” One meaning of nawfatz that Strong lists is “discharged, dispersed.” But what seems to be emphasized is the “dispersion” of “the holy people”; it appears on the surface to be bad news.

But it’s not time for bad news. The terrible 1260 years are ended. In the context of how Daniel 12 relates to the good news of Revelation 18:1-4 (lighting the earth with glory), one wonders if perhaps there is something good here that invites further study. God’s people are not “holy” in and of themselves; it’s Christ’s righteousness, not theirs. If Daniel 12 relates to the final “loud cry” and if God’s people are not “holy” of themselves, perhaps this “dispersal of the power of the holy people” has some good news in it. Ellen White, Jones and Waggoner, all tried to tell us that when “the most precious” message of Christ’s righteousness is preached to the whole world, the end will come!

Verses 7-13, Daniel’s fifth presentation of “the daily.”

Unless this passage is included and fully considered, one cannot correctly understand ha tamid. Unfortunately, when God Cares was published to take the place of Uriah Smith’s verse-by-verse Daniel and the Revelation, the editors apparently did not notice that the new book completely omits any reference to chapter 12 of Daniel. The author has strongly presented the Conradi view of “the daily” in chapter 8, but this omission of its key passage in chapter 12 is disappointing. There seem to be some dots not connected.

The Hebrew makes clear that ha tamid is “taken away” (sur) in order to set up “the abomination that maketh desolate.” This was what led our Seventh-day Adventist pioneers to relate 2 Thessalonians 2:3-7 to this study of ha tamid. They saw that the Bible does explain itself.

“The daily” was “taken away” before the “abomination” could be “set up.” “He who hindered” had to be “taken out of the way” first. But the “new view” insisted that “the abomination” be “set up” first, before ha tamid could be “taken away.” Further study may be helpful for all of us.

Don’t say goodbye to Daniel; he deserves your returning many times.

—Robert J. Wieland

P.S. Readers who would like a copy of the pamphlet that reproduces Ellen White’s 50 individual endorsements of Uriah Smith’s Daniel and the Revelation can download it here.

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