One of the most impressive moments in the Gospel is the chapter in which Christ's disciples ask Him about the end times: "What is the sign of your coming and the end of the age?" (Matt. 24: 3). In response, Jesus begins to list all these signs (by the way, very suitable for our time), not forgetting to mention the many false prophets, and wars, and lawlessness, when "in many love will grow cold." In the Gospel of Matthew, ending this bleak description, Christ says the following words: “He who endures to the end will be saved. And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the entire Universe, as a testimony to all nations … So, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken through the prophet Daniel, standing in a holy place, - let the reader understand, - then those who are in Judea flee to the mountains …
Why does Christ, touching upon such an important topic as “the end times” and his own Second Coming, unexpectedly refer to the Old Testament prophet Daniel? Why does he emphasize these words, placing a special emphasis on them "let the reader understand"? Usually in the Bible such phrases as “he who has a mind will count”, “he who has ears, let him hear”, etc. are hints: there is something important hiding in this place. And in the book of Daniel there really are clues that can turn our ideas about the world. For example, the exact date of the Second Coming is named there.
The Mystery of the Broken Colossus
Everyone knows the expression “a colossus with feet of clay”, but not everyone knows that it originates from the “Book of the Prophet Daniel”. This vivid image almost two and a half thousand years ago was dreamed of by the powerful Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and was interpreted by Daniel, then still a simple Jewish youth who was captured in Babylon.
In a dream, the king saw a huge terrible idol, whose head was made of gold, the chest and arms were made of silver, the belly and thighs were copper, the shins were iron, and the legs were partly iron, partly made of clay. Then the following happened: a strange stone "broke away from the mountain without the assistance of hands, struck the idol, its iron and clay feet, and broke them." And then this very stone that smashed the colossus "became a great mountain and filled the earth with itself."
This is the story that Daniel, thanks to the inspiration that came down to him, gave the following interpretation: the golden head of the idol is Babylon, the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar himself, after which the kingdoms of "silver" and "copper" will seize world domination in turn. The fourth kingdom, which came to replace them, will be "strong as iron", and after it will come the time of the strange fifth kingdom, comparable to fragile feet of clay. Daniel gave him the name "the kingdom divided." Well, the stone that eventually broke this personification of power and authority means the end of the usual world order and the establishment of completely new laws: “and the Heavenly God will erect a kingdom that will never be destroyed; it will crush and destroy all kingdoms, but it will itself stand forever”(Dan. 2:44). Actually, this exactly agrees with the words of Christ about the "end times",with the new era promised by Him, when love and harmony will come to earth.
To find out more precisely when all this will happen, it is enough to read into other dreams and visions from the Book of Daniel: in them the prophet: describes in detail and surprisingly correctly the pictures of the distant future.
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World history seen in a dream
Let's try to trace the coincidence of the predictions about the "iron colossus" with real events in world history.
So, according to the first prophecy, the "golden kingdom" of Babylon should eventually give way to the "silver" - and in 539 BC. e. it really happened: Babylon fell under the pressure of the troops of the Persian king Cyrus. The entire civilized world passed into the hands of the Persians for several centuries, until the empire of Cyrus, in turn, was conquered by a Greek named Alexander the Great. The most interesting thing is that Daniel not only foresaw this successive change of "kingdoms", but also quite accurately mentioned all three of the above world powers: Babylonian, Persian and Greek.
So, describing one of his visions, in which the warlike Goat wins the battle of Aries, Daniel explains: "Aries is the king of Persia, and the shaggy goat is the king of Greece." The coincidences with real history are amazing, because the conquests of Macedon were defended from Daniel for centuries! There is even an opinion among scientists that the Book of Daniel was completed by someone during the time of Alexander, but there is no evidence of this, and this conclusion was made only because of the seeming impossibility of such knowledge of the future.
However, Daniel also described events that were much further distant from him in time, telling under the guise of "the fourth, iron kingdom" about the next stronghold of civilization - the great Roman Empire. The European culture of Rome, which replaced the eastern one, was not like anything that existed before. Her power, based on clear organization and submission, made Daniel compare her to a soulless beast, “devouring and crushing” everything in its path.
As for the fifth kingdom, the "kingdom divided", its description is surprisingly reminiscent of … the current world order. Judge for yourself: after the collapse of the Roman Empire, the unipolar model of the world really changed to a multipolar one. And although there were always strong powers claiming world domination, in fact the planet was divided into several large spheres of influence, which is fully consistent with the prophecies of Daniel: “And the fact that you saw legs and toes, partly from clay, and partly from iron then there will be a kingdom divided, and in it there will remain several strengths of iron … And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong, partly fragile."
After such amazing "coincidences", I would like to learn more about that part of the history of the "colossus with feet of clay", which has not yet been read in any textbook, since it is related to our future. Moreover, as you can understand, the future is not far off.
The exact date of the second coming
Let's once again remember the words of Christ: "… when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken through the prophet Daniel." This image of the "abomination of desolation" is found in the final chapter of the Book of Daniel, which is entirely devoted to the chronicle of the last days of the existence of the "colossus." Summing up his prophecies, Daniel directly indicates the timing of the events predicted by him, when the old world order should be replaced by a new, much more just one: “From the time of the end of the daily sacrifice and the establishment of the abomination of desolation, one thousand two hundred and ninety days will pass. Blessed is he who waits and reaches one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days."
It is not difficult to find out the date behind these numbers, it is enough to take into account a few points. First, this passage is about the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. The fact is that in Judaism, only in this Temple can sacrifices be performed, and the destruction of the shrine leads, accordingly, to "the termination of the daily sacrifice." So, the first Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by King Nabuhudnezzar in 586 BC. e. The prophet Daniel was a contemporary of this event. Secondly, the word "day" in Hebrew is a flexible concept that literally means "period of time", "era". In the Bible, “days” often mean years, as, for example, in the prophet Ezekiel: “I have assigned years for you by the number of days … I have assigned you a day for a year” (Ezek. 4: 5).
Considering all this, you can easily find out how much time should pass from the historical date - the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple ("the end of the sacrifice") - to the joyful "days of bliss" It is enough to add both numbers (1290 and 1335 years) and add them to the date 586 BC e. It turns out at the latest - 2040.
It turns out that by this not too distant time, our modern “divided kingdom” should be replaced by a new, completely different one. Unlike the previous change of “kingdoms”, this will happen in a completely new way, because the “colossus” thirsting for unlimited power will be broken and will forever be in the past. How exactly this will happen is unknown, but the wait, according to the calculations, will not be long.
D. Turcan. “Interesting newspaper. Oracle"