On unsealing Daniel’s prophetic visions

The ‘sealed up’ prophecies within the Book of Daniel are coming under increasing scrutiny. This blog has relayed news of a couple of nuggets dropped into our hands, and we’ll consider a third in this post.

The first nugget from Freedom ARC serves as a useful introduction to the ‘sealed up’ words. It also grounds us in the vital centrality of Jesus Christ and letting Him remove every obstacle so we’re prepared for new things God is about to reveal and do.

Next, we considered the historical details of how the prophet Daniel’s visions remained sealed and their relevance to current and likely events, as in the ‘Four Signposts’ theory of Mark Davidson.

Now, let’s dig deeper into those scriptures with Nelson Walters’ introductory thoughts from Why Is No One Talking?. His insights warrant re-posting in full:

THE UNSEALING OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL

“In my opinion the root cause of most of the arguments in the church about end times stems from a little realized fact: God has prevented us from understanding the book of Daniel in the Old Testament where most of our end-time prophecies originate. If you read Daniel, it won’t be obvious. It appears to be like any other book of the Bible.

“The story of the Daniel in the lion’s den and all the other words Daniel wrote are exactly the same as they were nearly 2,500 years ago in ancient Babylon. But God has supernaturally placed a “clay seal” with his holy imprint on them and kept their full meaning secret until the “time of the end.”

But you, Daniel, keep the words secret and the book sealed until the time of the end.” (Dan. 12:4 NRSV)

As for you, seal up the vision. (Dan. 8:26 NRSV)

He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are to remain secret and sealed until the time of the end.” (Dan. 12:9 NRSV)

“I realize this may seem a bit strange. It has always been strange.

“Although we should have known better, throughout the ages Christian expositors have ignored the sealing of Daniel and guessed at its meaning. This is where the problem started. Many of these men were intelligent and led by the Holy Spirit. Although they were able to rightly interpret most of the Bible, their guesses based on sealed scripture were completely off track. God limited their understanding and this has caused division and argument throughout the entire church era. I would dare to say that the biggest reason why the modern church avoids preaching on the end times is this division caused by the sealing of Daniel.

“If that is true, why did God do this? I don’t know. I have suspicions but they are only my opinions. My first guess is we didn’t need to know until now. People who would not live to see the end times had no need of unsealed verses. For 2,500 years these prophecies have been a moot point. Winning souls for the kingdom is what mattered to John Wesley or D. L. Moody. They obviously died prior to the end times and their God-given call had no need of the sealed prophecies.

“Secondly, in my opinion, God sealed the prophecy of future events so that we would walk by faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please him” (Heb. 11:6 NASB). If we know every detail of every step along God’s Roadmap we will be walking by sight not faith. In the next post EAT THIS SCROLL! we will learn there are seven seals on the Book of Daniel. God will break the seals sequentially allowing us only the information we need to take our next step of faith. God repeatedly commands us to keep watch during the end times. Without these seals on Daniel we would not be required to be watchful. We would understand God’s entire plan.

“My final opinion on this topic is that God sealed Daniel so the wise could know what will happen and be saved, and the foolish would not know and be given over to their unrighteousness.

“The wise among the people shall give understanding to many … None of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand” (Dan. 11:33, 12:10 NRSV)

“With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: “You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them.” (Matt. 13:14-15 NRSV)

“These verses have the same message as the parable of the ten virgins we saw in “IT’S ALL ABOUT THE GOSPEL.” The foolish virgins have the scriptures; they have their lamps, but without the oil of the Holy Spirit they can’t interpret the sealed scripture. They will be taken by surprise by the events of the end times and caught unaware. The end times will come like a thief in the night and like the virgins, these churchgoers will be unprepared.

“Although these are just my opinions, what is known is Daniel will be unsealed in the time of the end. God will give his church understanding of the sealed verses and prophecies when they have need of them. I believe the time of the end is already upon us.”

Readers who wish to study this in-depth are directed to Nelson’s website The Gospel in the End Times, especially: