At the end of the day . . .

Daniel 2: [27] Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;
[28] But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;

"There are two things to take from that. One is the 'latter days' is talking about prophecy; bringing prophecy to a conclusion," says Richard Jordan.

"But it also tells you that the dream Nebuchadnezzar sees are those kingdoms; Babylon all the way to the Second Advent were the latter days.

"That's the reason the Book of Hebrews would start: [1] God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

[2] Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world

"Well, how can the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John be the last days when we think of the last days as the Second Advent? Because the whole of that 'fifth course of judgment' that begins with Nebuchadnezzar is the last days. The whole of that fifth course is called the 'day of the Lord.'

"Now, a day in the Bible has parts to it. In Genesis 1 when you see a day--the morning and the evening were the first day. So, a day has at least two parts in Genesis 1. In John 11 Jesus says there are 12 hours in a day and 12 hours in a night; the two parts.

"Mark 13:35 says there are four watches in the night. So a nighttime is divided into four sections. Four and four is eight so now you have a day divided into eight parts. My point is that a day in the Bible can have a lot of parts to it. It's a time period.

"In Genesis 1 it's a 24-hour day. The 'day of the Lord' is a lot longer than 24 hours, but it has parts. That's why it can start with Nebuchadnezzar and go all the way to the Second Advent of Christ.

Acts 2: [16] But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

[17] And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God,I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
[18] And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
[19] And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
[20] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

"The pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 tells them they have come to a particular point in the last days and that's when the Spirit is going to be poured out from on high."

*****

"That issue of time. That's not the issue of, 'Well, it's 8:20 and I need to be sure that by 9 o'clock I've done these things.' It's not just the moment that you're living in.

II Timothy 3:1: [1] This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

"That's more than just a date on the calendar; it's the times in which we live.

"There's an illustration of this in I Chronicles 12: [32] And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.

"The world you live in is designed by God to work on systems of cycles. They work in 80-year cycles, the average lifespan, then the 80-year cycles work in 500-year cycles, which work in 1,000-year cycles and there's this repetition in the cycles.

"The 'times' is the issue of where you are in the cycle. Ecclesiastes 3: [1] To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

[2] A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
[3] A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
[4] A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
[5] A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
[6] A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
[7] A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
[8] A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

"Paul says to redeem the times because the days are evil. The cycles that we live in are evil; the days of the times of the cycles are evil."