PURPOSE
To reveal the mystery of the kings of the North and of the South
INTRODUCTION
Testimonies Vol. 9, p. 14
“The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecy of the eleventh chapter of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment. Soon the scenes of trouble spoken of in the prophecies will take place.”
THE FALL OF MEDO-PERSIA, AND THE RISE OF GRECIA
Daniel 11:2-4
“And now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than [they] all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.”
The Medo-Persian king provoked Grecia, and Alexander the Great came against and defeated him, conquering Medo-Persia. But immediately after the conquest, Alexander died, and his Grecia kingdom was divided among his 4 generals: Ptolemy (Egypt), Cassander(Macedonia), Lysimachus (Thrace and Asia Minor), and Seleucus (Syria and upper Asia).
How are the territories of the King of the North and the King of the South reckoned?
The Mediterranean is the point of compass from which the territories of these two lines of rulers are reckoned. The Grecian division south of the Mediterranean, the Ptolemaic, first receives the title, “king of the south,” whereas the division north of the Mediterranean, the Lysimachian, first receives the title “king of the north.”
THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER AMONG THE 4 GENERALS
The rise of the North and South titles
In 281 B.C., Lysimachus added to his dominion Cassander’s; then in 279 B.C., Seleucus defeated Lysimachus and seized his kingdom, whereupon the eastern, the northern, and the western divisions became one, while Ptolemy held his own, the southern division. The Seleucidan dynasty, therefore, ushered in the second northern regime, whereas the Ptolemaic dynasty continued to be the first southern regime.
How are these two kings identified?
The key to the identity of these two kings is to trace the successive rulers of Egypt and Palestine. To begin with, the king of the South rules the “glorious land,” Palestine, along with Egypt, and the king of the North takes the glorious land twice (Dan. 11:16, 41). If he takes it twice, then he must have lost it once. Consequently, both kings ruled it twice, and lost it twice. But the king of the north, the last to rule it rules it “in the time of the end,” the time many run to and fro, and the time knowledge has increased (Dan. 12:4)
– our time. Thus the kings to rule Palestine, together with Egypt, were:
• First, the king of the south (Ptolemy);
• second, the king of the north (Pagan Rome);
• third, the king of the south (Turkey); and
• fourth the king of the north (England). THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Daniel 11:5-7
“And the king of the south shall be strong, and [one] of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion [shall be] a great dominion. And in the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king’s daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm: but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in [these] times. But out of a branch of her roots shall [one] stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail.”
A prince born from the Ptolemic woman with the Seleucoid man became the founding root of the Roman kingdom.
Dan. 11: 20
“Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes [in] the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.”
Augustus Caesar taxes the world. Augustus Caesar the Roman emperor is the one who taxed the world. See Luke 2:1-4.As this raiser of taxes was to stand when the kingdom was in its glory, the statement implies that its glory was to wane.
Daniel 11:22
“And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.”
Here is shown the break up of the Roman Empire at the hands of the barbarian hordes which swept down and, as a flood overflowed it
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PAPACY Daniel 11:21,23-24
“And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries…. And after the league [made] with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people. He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do [that] which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: [yea], and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.”
The 3rd regime on the north, Pagan Rome changes to the 4th regime on the north Ecclesiastical Rome. After Pagan saw itself overrun and humbled to the ground, it conceived a deceit by which to bring itself to power again. The scheme resulted in an ecclesiastical code of laws, the enforcement of which it carried out with
a “small people” – the so-called Christians. It did not call for dethroning the kings, but rather for Christianizing them. Thus peaceably the king of the north succeeded in putting over his scheme to reign as spiritual king of kings in the name of the Christian’s God. First it reigned over nations, second over kings of nations.
Daniel 11:25-30
“And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him. Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down slain. And both these kings’ hearts [shall be] to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end [shall be] at the time appointed. Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart [shall be] against the holy covenant; and he shall do [exploits], and return to his own land. At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.”
The 2nd regime of the south, the Mohammedans defeats the 4th regime of the north Christianized (Ecclesiastical) Rome. By 814AD, Rome had already ceded Egypt and Palestine to the Mohammedans.
In verse 26, the army of the South overflows the North and caused many to “fall down slain.” Those who “feed of the portion of his meet” and later destroyed him are the Protestants. In verse 27, the one table at which both kings speak lies is figurative of the same people to whom they lied about their religion. In verse 28, The King of the North returns to “his land with great riches” which he received from the converts of his religion. He, seeing the necessity of compromising with the heathen in order to make an easy prey of them, set his heart against the “holy covenant.” That is, he dropped The Sabbath of creation (Ex. 20:8-11). In verse 29, the King of the North returns at the appointed time and comes toward the south for another battle. In verse 30, the king of the north’s having intelligence only with those who did “forsake the holy covenant,” clears two points: first that all did not forsake the Sabbath; second that the small people with whom he became strong, were not the faithful followers of Christ, but the unfaithful ones.
1. Pollutes the sanctuary, removes the daily and sets up the abomination – Dan. 11: 31-34
These three links of Truth,
o the polluting of the sanctuary,
o the taking away of the daily, and
o the placing of the abomination, bring us several centuries into the Christian era. Christ referred to them in Matt. 24:15, 16.
A heathen sanctuary is already unclean, and therefore cannot be polluted. Clearly, then, the sanctuary of strength (not the heathen) was polluted by bringing into it a pagan priesthood and unconverted heathen. The “sanctuary” is the Christian church, for during the period in which the pollution took place there was no sanctuary in Jerusalem.
Verse 32 reveals the character of each class: first, of the unfaithful; and second, of the faithful.
Verses 33, 34, besides foreshadowing the martyrdom of the faithful followers of Christ, predict the Reformation, the “little help,” and foretell that its present fallen state is caused by “flatteries.”
2. Disregard a god, the desire of women and divided the land – Dan. 11: 37-39
· Christianized Rome is the only one that disregarded the god of her fathers, the Pagan god, honored “the god of forces,” and acknowledged a strange god, the God of the Christians. This scripture exposes the falsity of her professed acceptance of the Christian’s God.
· Woman’s desire is a home (Gen. 3:16) – a desire which the Lord placed in her heart. The Roman institution of nunneries is a disregard of the Desire of Women and therefore not in God’s order.
· He divided the land for gain through the Feudal System, a term used to express the manner in which the chiefs, who conquered by the aid of their armies, and settled in the conquered countries, divided the lands among their followers; and the liabilities and privileges growing out of this division.
3. Great Britain defeats Turkey – Dan. 11: 40-43
· At “the time of the end (1699),” in the eighteenth century, the King of the South (the Mohammedan Empire), feels strong and attacks the Christianized king of the north in his fifth regime (the Christian governments independent of the church). He (the Ottoman Empire ruled by Turkey) nevertheless loses out and the king of the north (Great Britain in particular) overruns him and grows very great. He takes Egypt, “the glorious land” (Palestine) and besides taking many other countries, he also takes Edom and Moab and Ammon (the Arab countries) which nevertheless in time “escape out of his hand” — free themselves.
Regimes of the North
Regimes of the South
1st
Lysimacian
1st
Ptolemaic
2nd
Seleuidan
2nd
Mohammedan
3rd
Pagan Rome
4th
Christian (Ecclesiastical) Rome
5th
Great Britain
4. Rumors caused Great Britain and her allies to enter World war II – Dan. 11: 44
· These verses reveal that after taking Egypt and Palestine, the king of the north enters into another war, not on account of the king of the south, not with Turkey, but rather due to rumors from the east and from the north that trouble him. These cause him to go forth with great fury to destroy many. But he conquers nothing worth mentioning, and according to the verse that follows he is afterward threatened with coming to his end. This particular war, therefore, brings the first reverses to the king of the north since the reverses of the king of the south in 1699.
· Germany and Russia from the north, also Japan from the east, the rumors which put Great Britain and her allies into World War II, are therefore the “tidings” which brought the war and which, though supposedly the war was won, weakened rather than strengthened the British Empire.
5. Planting the tabernacles of his palace and coming to his end – Dan. 11: 45
· Planting the tabernacles of his palace before he comes to his end does not necessarily mean moving his throne there. It could be taken to mean having a branch of his palace there. If he is to plant his tabernacles there while Michael stands up, though, then the only locality other than the Holy Land that we know of, is at Mount Sinai, between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
· The thing that Inspiration makes altogether clear is the fact that the king’s next stand is his end, while all look and listen, but none come to his help.
· Note: Since the United States influences Egypt, Palestine and some of the other countries mentioned in verse 44, it is believed that the title “King of the North” is applicable to the United States today. Thus Egypt and Palestine will remain under the influence of the United States until the complete fulfillment of verse 45.
THE END OF THE LESSON