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THE 2,500-YEAR DREAM #1
PICKING FUTURE PRESIDENTS
Here's an easy history quiz which I think most of you
can probably pass if you stop and think. Question: Who was the President
of the United States back in the year 1985? Now, you may need to count
backwards a bit — Clinton going back to ‘92, Bush for one term back to
‘88, and then realize that President Ronald Reagan was just into his second
term in office in the year 1985. And that's the right answer: Ronald Reagan,
40th U.S. President.
Well, that wasn't too hard. A gold star to each of you listening who got
it right.
Now, here's my next question. Who will be president in the year 2016?
And you don't have the slightest clue, do you? You might have a pretty
good guess who will win the Year 2000 elections. And whoever gets into
the White House that time might well hold on in 2004. But the year 2016?
It could be anybody. Some kid walking around today, still 19 years old,
could be 36 by the year 2016 and constitutionally qualify to run and win.
I don't think there's a Sunday morning TV talk show pundit alive right
now who would even hazard a guess about 2016 if you gave them 100-1 odds
on their prediction.
Now, what IF someone were to make that prediction today about the year
2016 — and lo and behold, we all get to the year 2016 and it turns out
they were right? That would be hugely impressive, wouldn't it? Well, did
you know that the Word of God, this old Book called the Bible, regularly
pulls off that kind of incredible prediction? And the book of Daniel,
chapter two, is where we find probably the clearest example.
Maybe you remember a delightful old time-travel film called Back to the
Future, where a young boy named Marty was accidentally whizzed back in
time from the year 1985 to the year 1955. Talk about culture shock! It's
almost a black-and-white "Pleasantville" kind of world for him,
with Cokes costing a nickel and bobby socks and ducktail haircuts being
the hot thing to wear at Hill Valley High School. He's desperate to get
"back to the future," so he hunts down the inventor, Doc Brown,
whose time machine had caused this problem. Back in ‘55, the mad scientist
is just a young man, and of course, he doesn't recognize Marty at all,
this weird kid who claims to be from the future, who claims to be from
the world of 1985.
"Well, tell me, Future Boy," he sneers, "who's the president
of the United States in the year 1985?" The very question I just
asked you — but remember, this is back in the year 1955. And Marty, without
any hesitation, gives him the right answer. "Ronald Reagan."
And Doc Brown falls over laughing. "Ronald REAGAN? The actor?"
It's too ludicrous to believe. "And who's his Secretary of State?
Jerry Lewis?"
And he doesn't take this Marty kid seriously at all . . . until all at
once Marty tells him something else he learned in 1985, something that
only he and Doc Brown know. "I know how you invented time travel,"
he tells him. "I know how you got that bump on your head." And
just like that, Marty has credibility. Because he KNOWS.
And you know, this is one of the most exciting things about the Bible.
It's a unique book, because it KNOWS the future. Here in an old book called
Daniel, and in the second chapter, we find a dream that spans something
like 2,500 years of earth's history. It goes from long before the dream
happened, into the present, into the future, right through to the birth
of Christ, right through the fall of the Roman Empire, and right into
these last days. It goes right into the year 1999. What's more, it then
goes BEYOND our present, and into even OUR future as well!
You know, many, many sceptics through the ages have had their doubts about
this old Book. "It's just a bunch of dusty history," they say.
"An old wives' tale — and I'm not an old wife, so leave me out of
it." But sooner or later, they have to face up to the fact that here
is a Book which contains a clear outline of FUTURE events . . . and that
the vast majority of these future events — future when they were written,
of course — have already happened. Right as predicted and right on schedule!
I don't want to jump ahead of this incredible prophecy, but friend, this
is really the message of the book of Daniel. You and I serve a God who
is absolutely in control. He sees the future; He knows the future. He's
in control of this planet's future. Who's going to be President in the
year 2016 is as easy a quiz question for him as knowing that Reagan had
the job way back in 1985. He knows!
Right in the middle of this story, our young hero, Daniel, offers up a
prayer to this amazing God who has revealed to him the great mystery of
Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And here's what he prays in thanksgiving:
"Praise be to the name of God for ever and
ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons; He sets
up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to
the discerning." Now notice this next line: "He reveals deep
and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with
Him."
Friend, do you want to know one of the scary things
about this job? I'm recording this message on Tuesday, March 2, and you're
going to hear it on Monday, April 5. That's a five-week gap, and I have
absolutely no idea what will transpire between now and then. I don't!
Those five weeks are a dark void to Ken and to David and to me. I can't
peek through the curtain of darkness to later this afternoon, let alone
all the way down to the fifth of April! Just a couple of months ago, we
did a radio program, which was wonderfully appropriate AT THAT TIME. Lo
and behold, about two weeks later, some headlines erupted, and because
sensitive issues were involved, and some personal pain to some good Christians,
we had to pull that program. We had to quickly record a replacement and
mail it out to our whole station list. Why? Because the uncertain veil
of darkness hides the future from each of US. But this young man, Daniel,
declares with confidence that there is no such veil for God. He has a
plan which involves our past, our present, and our future. He is never
stymied; His goals are never thwarted or frustrated. Nothing comes along
for which He doesn't have a contingency.
One of the great books written just ABOUT God is entitled The Knowledge
of the Holy, by the late A. W. Tozer, a brilliant, godly writer. He has
a chapter entitled "The Divine Omniscience." And I invite you
to join me in thinking just about one paragraph. See if you spot any gaps
of darkness here:
"God knows instantly and effortlessly,"
he writes, "all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind,
all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood
and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every
law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas,
all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions,
all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth,
motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell."
That's a powerful statement, isn't it! I like how the
expanded paraphrase of the Bible entitled The Clear Word renders this
prayer by Daniel in verse 22:
"[God] sees what to man is hidden in darkness.
He's the source of all knowledge and floods the world with the light of
understanding."
First thing tomorrow, friend, we'll begin to sort through
the details of this fascinating vision, which God actually gives two times
for His own good reasons! But let's notice one beautiful thing here. Sitting
on the throne in Babylon was a heathen king named Nebuchadnezzar. He wasn't
a follower of the true God; in fact, he was really an enemy of the kingdom
of heaven, having used his military might to take Israel captive. And
yet, this divine sovereign in heaven, the King of kings, cares enough
about our world that He intervenes. He sends a nighttime vision to this
alien monarch, Nebuchadnezzar, so that he would know, and so that Israel
would know, and so that you and I would also know here in 1999 what our
all-knowing Father has in mind for our battle-scarred old world.
We'll share this more as we go along, but I treasure a family story told
by Dr. Mervyn Maxwell, a theologian who wrote the wonderful study guide
entitled God Cares: The Message of Daniel For You and Your Family. The
concluding scenes of this vision — with the feet of iron and clay, a mixture
that never holds — teaches that in these last days there simply WILL NOT
be a secular world power that can dominate the planet. Babylon did; Rome
did; but here at the close of time it simply will not happen again, according
to the sure word of God. And this Maxwell family, a great clan of talented
Christians, have a European background. So Dr. Maxwell writes about his
own experience:
"I was fourteen when Hitler invaded Poland's Danzig Corridor,"
he writes. "I can still see my family hovering around our radio listening
to Britain's declaration of war, as the shortwave came in successively
loud and soft, clear and garbled. The future was dark, but I had been
brought up on Daniel 2, and I KNEW that sooner or later Hitler would be
defeated either by the Allies or by the second coming of Christ."
It's wonderful, isn't it, to serve the God who KNOWS.
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