This is an exciting message about the 3 signs foretold in Daniel 12:4 that show us we are in the End Times.
There are 3 points that I want to bring out from this prophetic word by Daniel that show us that we are at the Time of the End. They are: Men will Run, go ‘to and fro’ and knowledge shall increase.
RUN (Move fast)
TO AND FRO
KNOWLEDGE INCREASE
The trouble is, most of us have been born into this day and don’t notice it’s uniqueness in history, especially for those born after the year 2000. The older you are the more you see the change that has been taking place in the earth.
Before we go any further I want to point out that there is a difference between the Last Days and the Time of the End. It’s important to understand this.
“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” Hebrews 1:1-2
From this verse you can see in the Big Picture that the Last Days started when Jesus died on the cross. But the ‘Time of the End’ spoken of in Daniel is a different matter. The Time of the End will be heralded in by men running to and fro and knowledge increasing. I suggest that we are in that time and have been there for over 150 years. I believe that the start of this prophecy began in the mid 1800s with the industrial revolution that took place in the western world. Let’s look at the 3 points. I am using the King James Version of the Bible as it is closest to the original Hebrew.
RUN
To ‘run’ means to move fast. Up until the late 1800s the fastest man had ever been able to travel at was the speed of a horse. For 1000s of years he could go no faster than about 80kph. But with the industrial revolution and the invention of the steam engine man gradually went faster and faster. At first the steam train was slower that a horse. Remember the old cowboy movies where the Indians on horses were able to come next to the trains and attack them?
German experts were worried back then about trains and warned that if man travelled faster than 40kph in trains they would get nose bleeds, suffocate in tunnels and there would be an increase
of mental institutions because of them. Gradually trains went faster and faster and soon were faster than a horse. Today there is a train in China that travels at 430 kph, and there are no nose bleeds. It took nearly 5000 years for man to come to this place. The Time of the End.
The next thing we see was the ‘Horseless Carriage’. In 1886 the automobile could only travel at 16kph but by 1900 it was faster than 117kph. Today the Bugatti Chiron can go at 489kph. This change in speed only took 120 years. Man had been trying to fly since the beginning of time. The closest he ever got to the stars was when he fell off a building and hit his head. But now that we are at the Time of the End, and things began to change. In 1904 the Wright Brothers, bicycle repair men and sons of a preacher invented the flying machine. At first the flying machine went no faster than 10kph but that quickly changed and now we can travel at over 3500 kph. From 10kph to 3500kph only took 73 years. In 1927 Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in an airplane. Just one man. 80 years later up to 3000 planes were crossing the Atlantic every day. That was before the plague of course.
TO and FRO
“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro.”
There has never been a time like this before. From the 1800s the whole world was opening up. People were leaving Europe and the United Kingdom to populate the rest of the world. They came to New Zealand, Australia, Canada, America, South Africa,India. Going back and forth all over the earth.
In Jesus’ lifetime He only travelled in an area that was about 425 ks long and about 100 ks wide. Now we are at the Time of the End things have really opened up as far as travel is concerned. I have personally travelled 1000s of ks in my lifetime. I can’t remember how many times I have been back and forth from South Africa and Zimbabwe, a distance of 11,500 ks each way. I have travelled many times to the United Kingdom over the last 20 years which is 18,000 ks one way. This is indeed the ‘Time of the End’ when men would travel too and fro.
In Wales there are some who commute every day to London by train which is 480 ks return trip in the comfort of air conditioning with coffees, wifi and hot meals. In the Apostle Pauls’ day he would travel in the bowels of a smelly ship eating dried fish and bread with cramped conditions. Here I am today flying at 1000 ks an hour at 30,000 feet sipping on a orange juice, watching untold channels of TV (If I wanted to) with the choice of 2 different meal options each sitting. There is also a vegan option. Look at the refugee crisis. It says that 70 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes in 2019. Men are displaced and travelling to and fro all over the earth
INCREASE IN KNOWLEDGE
“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4
Knowledge increasing, is a really big sign that Jesus is coming soon. It’s estimated that world knowledge doubled every 100 years up until 1900. Then doubled every 25 years until 1950. Then every year until 2000. It’s believed that with nano technology it will increase every 12 hours soon! Look at what man has achieved in the last 100 years, from the splitting of the Atom, DNA technology, to landing on the moon.
The Apollo 11 space craft had a computer that helped land man on the moon. My phone has 8gb of ram and that is 2 million times more than the Apollo 11 space craft. My phone also has 7 million times more rom than that computer had.
It was the stuff of sci-fi books to have flat screen TVs on the wall and mobile phone watches when I was young, but it’s bog standard today. What about drones and all they are used for now.
Not only will secular knowledge increase but spiritual knowledge too. We will look at how that has happened in the next message.