Final Days @ MindSay

Dixie currently feels:

 Depressed

 

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Alright, another full week without blogging.

 

It's been my last week of secondary school.

I sat my final few exams, did my final few revision sessions, and finished off my final piece of coursework. I left on Friday, straight after my last exam, which was Additional Science unit 3.

 

And now, I have two months and two days to do whatever I want! :)

 

I has my final bit of freedom for a while.

And, I'm refusing to get a job, as I keep continually being pressured to.

Screw that, I'm not in desparate need for money. I'm content with all of my current possessions.

 

 

I've done nothing majorly interesting this week - except download about 100 episodes of The Powerpuff Girls. :)

 

Oh, and with a few of them, and some other random videos I stole from YouTube with Vixy Converter, I made some YouTube poops.

 

My first one wasn't great, but my second one was much better - and they're currently on YouTube for you to view. :)

 

 

Today, I've been playing Banjo-Kazooie.

I finished off the last level in the game - but I died before I managed to grab the last four music notes. ...So I have to go through it again and get them all. And the Jinjos.

 

Yeah, and I've also got the hardest level in the game to finish off too - get all the notes in that, but I always die before I get to the last ones!!!

 

 

I've downloaded some more Cannibal Corpse.

My current favourite song is Chambers Of Blood.

 

Unlike most Cannibal Corpse songs, this one has a really recognisable tune to it. :)

 

 

I've just finished off two more boards on Mario Party 4 whilst I sorted out some more music for my iTunes library.

 

I'm going to have another stab at those two levels now. ARGH...

 

When is a king not a king?  Or rather, when is a king not only himself, but a type (forerunner) for one who is to come?

When you're dealing with prophecy, of course. 

An apocalyptic book is one that deals in revealing. Taking the cover off of something. That's all it is.  Sometimes, there is more than one thing to be uncovered, though only one thing is spoken.  A week can be a week...or a year...or a series of seven years.  A king can be a king of ancient days or a king of the future...or both.

Such it is with the visitation that Daniel receives one day on the bank of the river Tigris.  He had been fasting for three weeks.  Mourning over a vision he had received (that is not delineated here in the book...to know he mourned over it was apparently all Daniel could manage to write about.),  he was on the riverbank with some others, when a shining man arrived and spoke to him about many things.  The men with Daniel saw and heard nothing, yet were terrified so that they ran and hid.  Daniel only was left to talk to the visitor, who was an angel. 

Knowing Daniel was in mourning, the angel made haste to reassure him.  "Don't be afraid, you are greatly treasured," Daniel is told more than once. 

With such reassurance, the angel told Daniel of what was to come for the future of Israel. Much was said that refers to the Ptolemies and Seleucids that would follow the kings of Persia, but that, for you and me, is history.  Our future can be found in prophecies that -- while some of what is said refers to Antiochus, some scholars claim -- can also refer to the times of the end, about which Jesus taught and his apostles queried him on, hundreds of years after Daniel's encounter with this angel. 


The king spoken of here is the antichrist, in the prophetic view that holds to this referring to the End of the Age.  Over the course of this series of studies that I started teaching in June, the term antichrist surfaces often. Please do not become desensitized to it!  Whether he is called The Abomination that Causes Desolation, the Prince of this World, the Ruler, or a king, as spoken here, he was a figure to frighten great men in their visions of him.  He is brought up often, in many guises, so that no one will miss him when he appears on the global stage. This is not a minor figure who is going to get his fifteen minutes of fame on a show or have a podcast to his name.  He will be a ruler.  One who will wield authority, first disguised then outright.

He will do whatever he wants, we read above.  He will see himself as above any god...and he will bring others to see him this way, too.  He will blaspheme, and he will be successful, we see here. Successful.  That means that he will get his own way...for a time.  It is possible to read this passage as if this person will be coming from a home of some kind of faith, or from a larger family that claims a faith, either by blood or practice.  He will ignore the "god loved by women" which could mean one named Tammuz (mentioned by Ezekiel) or even the Messiah, scholars agree.

This person, this king, this ruler will honor wealth and strength insofar as he makes them manifest in his environment. He will treat those who honor him like vassals, giving them lands, this passage of scripture says.  They might think they are being given power, but this passage implies otherwise.

Today, all I can say to you is to be aware.  Other parts of these chapters in Daniel deal with spiritual warfare, so I have to say that I believe that there is a battle going on, right now, for the minds and hearts of all those in these times.  Angels battle demons over people. Demons could not reach Daniel directly, but they did delay the angelic messenger who was sent to him, leaving God's prophet in agony for longer than had been planned.

There is evil today, and evil is also supposedly mocked today.  By trivializing what is wrong, the Enemy, the Deceiver, has made it seem not so bad at all to most people...and that is his goal.  He wants us to be uncaring, unaware.

So fight it. Be aware.  See what is around you with fresh eyes.  And be on the alert.  God speaks so often for us to be wary, to look to see the day of his coming, of his final acts on this world, that we must heed him or pay the consequences. 

The prophecies of Daniel were proven true, in the history books.  Kings and rulers long past give the truth to what he says. Daniel's track record is very good.  Remember that.