During our exploration, we also reflect on a recent debate held at Denver Bible Church tackling the topic of water baptism. The discussion centers on its necessity for salvation and delves into the broader historical context, revisiting baptism’s Jewish roots and examining Paul’s practices. Listen in as our hosts unpack contrasting perspectives and offer a panoramic view of baptismal traditions throughout biblical history.
00:27:10 The Conflict Between Seleucids and Ptolemies
00:28:09 Closing Remarks and Offers for Bible Study Materials
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings to the brightest audience in the country, and welcome to Bob and Yart Live. Today, we’re getting into a study of the Book of Daniel done by my father and predecessor, Bob and Yart. And if you want, you do not want to miss this. If you want to get all of Bob and Yart’s Bible studies for just $10, you can get that at nyart.shop that has all of these Daniel studies. You do not want to miss those. But today, we’re getting into this study of Daniel, So exciting. Hey, if you can’t afford that $10, email us, service at kgov.com, and we will find a way to get you those Bible studies. Hey, this is Daniel, Bob Enyart’s study of Daniel. So exciting. I’ll see you on the other end.
SPEAKER 02 :
So welcome back to our study in the book of Daniel. And before we begin with chapter 11, I’d like to just give a brief recount of Thursday night’s debate. Here at Denver Bible Church, we were invited to a church in Denver, and it is a church of Christ. And the topic was, is water baptism required for salvation? We teach, as the Bible says, that we’re saved by grace through faith alone, not of works. And of course, water baptism, just like circumcision, is a work of the flesh, as described in the Bible. so too is baptism. It’s something you physically do. And Paul writes that when we believe in our heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead, when we trust in Christ’s death and resurrection, we are saved. So that is what we teach at Denver Bible Church. The Church of Christ says, no, you also have to be water baptized and you have to be submerged, immersed. And so if someone believes exactly like them, but they have been sprinkled, which is a common way that millions have been baptized, they say they’re going to hell if you are baptized in that manner. And so they indicated clearly they believe that Will Duffy and I are going to hell. And I do have to agree that when God says that here is the way to eternal life, if you say, no, I’m not going to go your way, then that means you’re not going to heaven. But it was a fascinating time. It seemed to be a battle of proof texts and context. Their proof text and our presenting the story of the Bible and the story of the New Testament. we showed how baptism was a Jewish ritual that goes back to the time of Moses and they would take special water dedicated to God as described in the Bible and they would use that and they would sprinkle it on the tent of meeting and on the vessels and on the people and the priest would at certain times take this water that was set aside for God And they would dip a branch in it, a hyssop branch, and they would sprinkle the people. And that was for the cleansing of sins, for the purification of sins. And we showed how you fast forward to the New Testament. And John the Baptist was baptizing for the purification of sins, the Bible says. And when Jesus turned the water into wine, which they don’t believe that you could drink wine, it’s a sin, and they don’t think Jesus turned water into wine. But when Jesus turned water into wine, the Bible says in John 2 that it was the kind of water used for the purification of the Jews. In other words, it was the same kind of water that was used in the Old Testament for the purification of the Jews. So the Israelites—this is before Christians— before people called themselves Christians or followed Jesus as the Messiah, before that had all occurred, the Jews would baptize one another, and they had doctrines of baptisms, plural, as we read in the book of Hebrews, chapter 6, verse 2, and We read in the Gospels that they would come home from the marketplace and do a special cleansing of their hands that’s very reminiscent of the books of Moses with this symbolic purifying from sin. And then they would take this water and they would baptize their vessels, their copper vessels, their pitchers, their cups, and their couches. So they would come home from the marketplace where they’d mingle with uncircumcised, unclean Gentiles, and they’d come home and they would purify their house. And so the Bible actually says they baptized their couches. So we maintain that that doesn’t mean they took their couches to the Jordan River and submerged them, but they took this water that was in the water pots that Jesus used to turn water into wine, that kind of water, and they sprinkled, they baptized their utensils and their furniture. So that’s a different story. understanding of baptism than the Church of Christ ever presents, yet all those things are in the Bible. So we show that baptism is a Jewish ritual, and when John was baptizing, this is before Jesus was preached as the Christ, even the Pharisees recognized baptism, but they wanted to know by what authority are you baptizing? So Pharisees who were not Christians had no problem at all with baptism. Baptism was a Jewish ritual, just like circumcision and the Sabbath and the dietary law. And so when God turned from Israel to the body of Christ, he saved the apostle Paul, and Paul goes to Europe with the gospel, and he says to the Corinthians, he says, I am glad that I baptized almost none of you because Jesus did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. And wow, could you imagine a Church of Christ evangelist saying Jesus did not send me to baptize? There’s no way. But the reason Paul baptized some was that he baptized a guy named Crispus and he was the ruler of the synagogue. And this ruler of the synagogue was worshiping God. He was already in covenant relationship with God, and baptism was part of his program, part of Israel’s program. The same thing when Paul met Lydia and those who were worshiping at the river. The first converts in Egypt, they were worshiping God as Jews. So they were not unsaved pagans. They were already part of God’s covenant of circumcision, part of Israel’s kingdom. And so Paul baptized them. In Acts 19, when he met 10 disciples of John the Baptist, they were serving the Lord God the God of Abraham, but they didn’t know about Jesus and the Holy Spirit. So when they believed Paul’s message, he baptized them because that was their program. And just like Paul might circumcise a Gentile, not because we’re supposed to be circumcised, but because he wants the Jews in that area to get along with the Gentiles who are Christians, so too he might baptize a Gentile, maybe. And that might have been the case with the Philippian jailer. But that’s it. Other than that, it appears that Paul was baptizing Jews who had all along worshipped the God of Abraham, and so baptism was part of their program. That’s why he did that. At the end of the debate, the two Church of Christ teachers who were our opponents, Chris Peltz, who I’ve debated on the topic of what does the Bible say about wine, that’s online at kgov.com. And Aaron Earhart, Aaron stood up and after a very civil two and a half hour debate, he rebuked Will Duffy saying that Will brings shame to the title elder because Will’s an elder at Denver Bible Church. And the whole room was shocked. Will, I think Will is 29 years old. It was definitely a reference to Will being young. And I think he’s 29 years old. He’s married. They have a beautiful family. And Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, Timothy, don’t let anyone despise your youth. So there is a general principle that you shouldn’t rush to become a leader. That’s a general principle in God’s Word. You need maturity. But Jesus chose the apostle John as a disciple when he was probably younger than Will. John died at about 100 A.D. The Lord chose him to follow him as an apostle in the late 20s sometime. So John was probably younger than Will. And the best king in the Old Testament is Josiah. And Josiah ascended to the throne when he was the ripe old age of eight. He was eight years old, and he very quickly became the greatest king Israel had ever had, the most righteous king. So it seems completely out of context and unreasonable. It seemed like… an outburst of anger, although presented in control, but just anger that Will had done so well presenting the grace message. So thank you for letting me give you that summary of the debate. It should be available from us on CD or DVD, so please look for that. We’ll be working with Daryl Berkey to see if we could get that together. Okay, today we’ve arrived at Daniel chapter 11, which is the vision introduced by the previous chapter. It would help as we go through this if we can remember that the king of the north refers to the kings of Syria. the Seleucid Empire that ruled over Syria. And if you could picture the Middle East, where Israel is, and up north and to the east a little bit is Syria. And the king of the south refers to Egypt, which is not surprising, and the Ptolemies, the kings who ruled Egypt. Ptolemy was a title just like Pharaoh was a title. But of course, Pharaoh, there is no Egyptian word for Pharaoh. The whole world says Pharaoh because that’s the Hebrew word for the king of Egypt. So the whole world gets the term Pharaoh from the Bible. So beginning with verse 1, it seems that the person speaking is an angel and that it is Gabriel and that he’s continuing from the end of the previous chapter. So in verse 1 we read, So to see this, and I’m saying this is an angel, let’s back up just a little bit. If you want to go back to chapter 10, maybe we’ll start in verse 18. And I’d like to remind you what we read in Daniel chapter 9 when Daniel writes about, quote, the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision. So he calls Gabriel a man. He calls the archangel the man Gabriel, likely because this heavenly being has the form of a man. That’s probably why Daniel described him, referred to him like that. So then I think our chapter 11 continues the last part of chapter 10 about this heavenly man, Gabriel. For we read in Daniel 10, verse 18, Then again, the one having the likeness of a man touched me and strengthened me. And notice that that’s something that Gabriel does. He strengthens someone. And he said, oh, man, greatly beloved, fear not. Peace be to you. Be strong. Yes, be strong. So when he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, let my Lord speak for you have strengthened me. Then he said, do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I have gone forth, indeed, the prince of Greece will come. But I will tell you what is noted in the scripture of truth. And he says, but I will tell you what is noted in the scripture of truth. No one upholds me against these except Michael, your prince. And we’ve talked about Michael, the archangel. So Gabriel is speaking of spirit beings. who apparently have some sort of jurisdiction or influence over the affairs of Persia and Greece. So let’s continue with what he’s saying here. Also in the first year of Darius the Mede, I, even I, stood up to confirm and strengthen him. Now, Darius, if you recall, he’s the king who sent the letter to all the peoples of the world in his empire. And he wrote that the God of Daniel was the living God. And so as a reference to the reality of the spiritual realm, and its occasional spilling over into sacred history, we learn that Gabriel in some way supported Darius in his affirmation of the true God. How exactly does that happen? I sure don’t know. But God is a majestic creator, and he not only made the physical realm, but he made the spiritual realm. And we are body, soul, and spirit. So we’re physical and spiritual. And most human beings put most of their effort and attention into the physical realm, including scientists. And they have an awfully difficult time figuring out how the physical realm works. Very difficult time. Light and light’s properties as particles like photons in a wave. How does that work? And matter, we know that matter weighs, depending on what gravitational field you’re in, something weighs more on the Earth than it does on the Moon. But what gives matter its weight? Or more accurately, why does matter have mass? Scientists still don’t know. They’re looking with a large… particle collider in Europe, they’re looking for something called the Higgs boson, what they call the God particle. But if they ever find it, they’ll say, finally, we know why matter has mass. But we don’t even know that. There’s a lot about the physical world we don’t understand. So when we wonder about the way God made us and how he enabled us to procreate and have children, and those children at that moment of conception come into existence, body, soul, and spirit, how does that happen? How are they imbued with an eternal spirit from their parents? These are the most complex and awesome things to ponder. And so how is it that an angel could have jurisdiction over an empire or a country or a state? How could that be? And how do they exert any kind of influence? Why would they want to fight with a holy angel as it’s flying overhead to get to Daniel? These are very… complex issues that the Bible doesn’t give us a lot of detail about. We’ve talked some in the past during this study, but there is clearly a spiritual realm and a spiritual warfare going on behind the scenes that we are not especially privy to. Verse 2, “…and now I will tell you the truth.” Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all. By his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece. Now this prophecy from here through till verse 35 seems to present the reigns of the kings from the time of Daniel until a very wicked king arises in Greece that we’ve talked a lot about back in chapter 8, Antiochus Epiphanes. Now remember we talked about him, that he was so evil, this Antiochus Epiphanes, that he’s considered to be the Old Testament Antichrist. He is the one who prohibited the Jews from worshiping Jehovah at the temple. He said, this temple is being rededicated to Zeus, and you can only worship Zeus in the temple. And that shocked the ancient world. Even with how wicked the ancient world was, their kings did not do those kinds of things, saying, for example, to the Jews, you can’t worship Jehovah. That’s why this guy is referred to as the Old Testament Antichrist. And so… We’re going to be talking about kings from the end of Daniel’s ministry until Antiochus Epiphanes over the next 30-some verses. Now, notice in verse 2, there are three more kings arise in Persia, and then they’re eclipsed by a fourth. Well, the list of Persian kings… Beginning back in the 500s BC, that succeeded Cyrus in Persia are Cambyses, Smyrdas, Darius I, and Xerxes. Now, we are not generally familiar with the names of a lot of ancient kings. We’re not very familiar with battles. This chapter brings us right into the midst of details of foreign policy and wars and succession lists and so on of kings and empires that we’re not very familiar with, and so it’s a little bit difficult. But I said that these four kings succeeded Cyrus the Persian. Well, why start there? What’s the difference? There are four kings mentioned in this verse, three and then a stronger one. Well, the reason we begin with Cyrus the Persian is because of the overall span of the book of Daniel. Why don’t we look at… the last verse real quickly of three different chapters in Daniel to see who the kings are during his time as a prophet. Let’s look at the last verse in chapter 1, chapter 5, and chapter 6. So we go way back. We’re in Daniel 11, but let’s go way back to Daniel chapter 1. And, you know, I want to look at the last verse, but since we’re there, why don’t we remind ourselves and look at the first verse, too. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. So that’s where the trouble began, and this is the Babylonian captivity, that all these prophecies are occurring in all the miracles that God did for Daniel and his companions. This is all happening during the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity. And look at the last verse of this chapter. Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus. So let’s also look at the last verse of Daniel 5 and Daniel 6. So Daniel 5, verse 30. That very night, Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. So if you recall, Belshazzar was the son of Nebuchadnezzar. So we go from Nebuchadnezzar to Belshazzar to Darius the Mede, and then look at the last verse of Daniel chapter 6. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. So Daniel’s ministry goes through the time of Cyrus. And so when we look at this prophecy and we see that it speaks of three kings arising in Persia and then a fourth king, We look back into ancient history and we see, well, which were the four kings who succeeded Cyrus? And that’s where we find Cambyses, Smyrdas, Darius I, and Xerxes. We’re now back to Daniel, verse 2. Let’s reread that. And now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far greater than them all. By his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece. Now, this prophecy continues. as we saw in chapter 8, and it goes through Greece’s history, and Greece consolidates its power, and then eventually its kingdom falls apart. It’s divided, and The book of Daniel not only says this, but ancient history says this, that Greece’s empire is divided into four realms, and they’re reasonably weak, and they’re nothing near as strong as Greece was under the short time of Alexander the Great. But let’s continue in verse 3. Then a mighty king shall arise who shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will. And when he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken up and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not among his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be uprooted even for others besides these. So this is, when we look back in history… we see that this is then referring to Alexander the Great. And he conquered the known world with such speed that it said that he was depressed. And when asked, why are you depressed? He said, because there are no more lands to conquer. Well, Alexander the Great died suddenly, very young. He was not prepared to leave his empire to a successor, and so it was divided up. As we read here, and as we saw back in Daniel 7-8, his empire was divided up between four men, and it basically fell apart. Now, the next 16 verses from verse 5 to 20 refer to an ongoing conflict between Syria and Egypt. If you can think of Syria in the northern Middle East, then Egypt to the south and west, just in the corner of Africa. Actually, we say between Syria and Egypt. This is between the Seleucids, the Seleucid Empire. These were the kings who ruled over Syria. And in the text, they’re referred to as the king of the north. And the Ptolemies, Ptolemy with a P-T at the beginning of it. Ptolemy… The Ptolemies, those kings are called the King of the South, as they’re introduced, and they ruled Egypt. This conflict that’s being described lasted for a century and a half, from about 320 BC to 175 BC. So if you remember…
SPEAKER 01 :
Stop the tape. Stop the tape. Hey, we are out of time here on KLTT Radio. If you want the entire thing, you can find it in two different ways. One, you can go to kgov.com, click on the store, and purchase the Daniel Bible Study, which is a little bit expensive. I’ll be honest. It’s a little bit expensive. Or for way cheaper, you can go to enyart.shop and get all of Bob Enyart’s Bible Studies for just $10. You do not want to miss that. $10. What a steal. If that’s too expensive for you, reach out service at kgov.com and we will find a way to get that to you. No charge. We want to be a blessing to you. Again, nyart.shop. That’s E-N-Y-A-R-T dot S-H-O-P. Hey, may God bless you guys.
During our exploration, we also reflect on a recent debate held at Denver Bible Church tackling the topic of water baptism. The discussion centers on its necessity for salvation and delves into the broader historical context, revisiting baptism’s Jewish roots and examining Paul’s practices. Listen in as our hosts unpack contrasting perspectives and offer a panoramic view of baptismal traditions throughout biblical history.
