Daniel 7
“I kept looking
Until thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
His vesture
was like white snow
And the hair of His head like pure wool.
His throne
was ablaze with flames,
Its wheels
were a burning fire.
10 “A river of fire was flowing
And coming out from before Him;
Thousands upon thousands were attending Him,
And myriads upon
myriads were standing before Him;
The
court sat,
And the books were opened.
The Ancient of Days --- sinless
Those attending Him -- sinless
"Investigate" facts recorded in books
The court sat ... the books were opened
-- the action of the sinless beings described there.
Myriads standing before Him - are standing for service - His angels.
PreAdvent "Judgment"
21 “I was watching; and the same horn was
making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, 22
until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made
in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.
Saints are subjects in the future judgment
and a judgment was made
in favor of the saints
13 “I kept looking in the night visions,
And
behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
And
He came up to the Ancient of Days
And
was presented before Him.
14 “And to Him was given dominion,
Glory and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations and
men of every language
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed.
Everyone in that courtroom - sinless beings.
But if you hold scripture at a "sufficient" distance you could simply ignore all that and imagine that Daniel 7 was written by "Seventh-day Adventists" so the "details" it presents can be ignored.
First, there is NO such thing as "Investigative Judgment," it is an exclusive teaching of Seventh-Day Adventists which is not found in the Bible.
Its the Great White throne one from Revelation 20, and NO Christian will be found there!
Daniel 7 is not the GWT in Rev 20 and your own statement disproves your argument because in Daniel 7 the text says the saints are subjects of that judgment (so it is 2 Cor 5:10 not Rev 20) and as even you admit - the saints are not subjects of the Rev 20 judgment after the 1000 years.
The judgment there is for all of the lost sinners, none of the saved ones!
True of Rev 20 ... not true of Daniel 7 where "judgment is passed in favor of the saints"
============================
So what's this "investigative judgement" thing?
Dan 7:1-8 provides a time frame for it - by progressing through 4 world empires - to let the reader know that the judgment takes place some time after the fall of the pagan Roman empire. Daniel is writing chapter 7 in the middle of the 6th century B.C. Pagan Rome does not fall entirely until sometime in the 5th century A.D.
23 “Thus he said: ‘
The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the
other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. 24 As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. 25 He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. 26
But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. 27
Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One;
His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’ (i.e. the second coming of Christ)
The Judgment completes before the second coming. Once it does complete - we have the second coming.
Thus in Rev 14:6-7 "
having an everlasting Gospel to preach to every nation saying... the hour of His judgment HAS come..."
And so it is "pre advent" and in vs 9-10 it is a matter of looking into the "details" of what is written in the books "
The court sat and the books were opened"
And the subject of that judgment includes the saints "
Judgment was passed in favor of the saints" Dan 7:22
It proceeds along the lines that Paul defines for us in Romans 2-- so everything is open and above board..."
no partiality with God" Rom 2:11
In responding only to the Scriptures that you post, you said...……
I merely quote
Daniel 7 I offer no prophetic insight - just the text.
I thank you for pointing that out.
Then I said
If you are inserting
1 John 4 to warn us to beware of
Daniel 7 ... then you are out on a limb my friend. Daniel is a good Bible prophet as it turns out.
Daniel 7 is of course prophetic. Actually it is written in the Hebrew as if it had already happened, or FUTURE tense.
He was reporting what he "saw".. He could not see it before he saw it -- so he saw it first then writes about what he saw .. a past tense form of the word.
I think we all get that. And all Protestant scholars agree that the 4 empire sequence he gives in Daniel 7 is - Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece and pagan Rome.
See the study Bible of your choice for that obvious point.
Daniel lives at the time of Babylon and the early part of the Medo-Persian empire - as we all know.
Dan. 7:25 corresponds to Rev. 13:7 where it says the anti-Christ will conquer the saints.
Indeed the same 42 months = 1260 years of dark ages persecution that we see in Rev 12
And now -- Rev 13:5-7
Rev 13
5 There was given to him a mouth speaking
arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to
act for forty-two months was given to him. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle,
that is, those who dwell in heaven.
7 It was also given to him
to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.
Pagan Rome is divided into ten parts when it falls. Papal Rome rises out of it and persecutes the saints for 1260 years.
Daniel 7
20 and
the meaning of the ten horns that
were on its head and the other
horn which came up, and before which three
of them fell, namely,
that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates. 21 I kept looking, and that
horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them 22
until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One,
and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.
23 “Thus he said: ‘
The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the
other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. 24 As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. 25
He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for
a time, times, and half a time. 26
But the court will sit for judgment,
Result of judgment:
and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.
at the second coming.
27
Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One;
His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’
That is the second coming.
