Last summer, when Israel was at war with Lebanon, my pastor, Richard Jordan, talked about how nobody was looking at “the real war; the war that’s behind the scenes that even Israel, as it struggles for its existence in the Middle East today, doesn’t know it’s fighting.”

Jordan says, “There’s much more going on than what you’re ever going to read about in the papers or see on television, and I don’t care if you watch Fox or CNN, or if you listen to Air America or Rush Limbaugh. I don’t care who it is, wherever you get your information, there are things that none of these (media) people even acknowledge as being in existence that are the real issues in the real war.”

*****

Iran today has become the powerbroker in the Middle East and yet it’s not an Arab country. The Iranians are Persians.

In the Book of Daniel, a major prophetic book discerning future events, you read about the Medes and the Persians, and the Kurds are the modern-day Medes. The nations that made up the Media-Persian Empire still exist.

“The point in Daniel is there’s a spiritual element to the behind-the-scenes conflict and that’s really the real problem,” says Jordan. “There’s a connection between the spiritual world and the affairs of this earth. There’s a connection in the Bible between what happens in the angelic world, and the angelic conflict, and the affairs of men on Planet Earth.”

*****

Daniel was 87 years old when the Persian Empire began. Three years later, God sent the angel Gabriel to give Daniel some information about the far away future—in a time that is future from us today.

Jordan explains, “Daniel 11 and 12 are the climax to the Book of Daniel, and they focus on the very last days of the last days of God’s program with the nation Israel.

“They focus on a point in prophetic Scripture that is given more attention to in the Bible than any other period in human history, including the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In Daniel 10:14, Gabriel even says, “Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.”

*****

The account Daniel gives of this angelic appearance is very reminiscent of Revelation 1 where John describes having seen Jesus Christ.

Daniel writes, “Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz:

6] His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
[7] And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.
[8] Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.
[9] Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground.
[10] And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.
[11] And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.”

Jordan explains, “In Revelation 1, John falls on his face as if he were dead, then he hears this voice and the hand touches him. The voice says, ‘Arise, I’m gonna show you some things.’ So, you’re in a very similar situation here in Daniel, because what’s going to revealed to Daniel is something John is going to pick back up on in the Book of Revelation.

“That’s why over in chapter 12 of Daniel, it says, ‘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.’

“Now, that’s not talking about automobiles and computers, okay? Prophecy preachers have used that verse (incorrectly) forever. It’s talking about how people are going to run to and fro (as in Amos 8:12), looking for light and revelation. And knowledge shall be increased.

“What that verse is saying is, ‘Hey, I’ve given you some basic information, Daniel, but there’s more coming, and if you want to find it, you can find it in the Book of the Revelation.’ Daniel, when he finishes his book, knows God has more to tell and that in his book is a basic outline of what the last days are going to be like.”

*****

Daniel had been praying for revelation from God three weeks before it arrived, and the reason for the delayed response had to do with God’s messenger, Gabriel, being hindered in his travel to earth by angelic forces!

Gabriel actually assures Daniel, “Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
[13] But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.”

Jordan explains, “Michael’s an archangel; he’s the commander of the armies of heaven. The prince of Persia stops (Gabriel) and says, ‘Nah-ah, buddy, I don’t want you to get down there,’ and it took him 21 days to get through that opposition to bring the answer to Daniel.”

At the end of Daniel 10, after Gabriel’s finally met with Daniel, he informs him, “Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.
[21] But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.”

Jordan explains, “Gabriel’s saying, ‘I’m not just going to have to fight the prince of Persia, I’m going to have to fight the prince of Grecia too.’ In other words, there’s some battle going on up there in the heavens. And he’s going to have to go back and fight another guy just to get home!

“Now, what in the world is all that about?! By the way, where’s Persia? It’s on the earth, isn’t it? He just told you in Daniel 10:1 that this is taking place ‘in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia.’ The king is in the earthly kingdom of Persia, but where’s the prince of Persia in verse 13? He’s in heaven, in the universe out there!

“The king of Greece isn’t even there yet on the earth! Because the Persian Empire is going to be replaced historically by the Greek Empire. You remember that in your studies of Daniel? In chapter 11 he’s going to tell you about that.

“In verse 2, it says ‘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.’ Greece is going to come and take over Persia.

“So Daniel’s told them about Babylon; the kingdom of Babylon was replaced by the kingdom of Persia, which is going to be replaced by the kingdom of Greece. Historically, there’s going to be manifest on the earth kingdom after kingdom after kingdom, but Daniel’s saying here (in chapter 11) that those kingdoms on the earth have a representation in the government of the heavens—in the angelic realm up there!

“Behind the scenes of world affairs—behind the scenes of the conflicts of nations on this earth—there’s a spiritual conflict going on that is reflected in the angelic realm. What’s happening is as the nations of this earth work their wiles, it’s an outworking of something more than just the animus between one nation and another.

“You know, if you took Israel out of the Middle East, the Arabs still wouldn’t get along with one another. If you took Christendom out of the scene, and you took Judaism off the page, do you understand that the various sects of Islam fight one another just like Christian sects fight one another? It’s in the blood, folks. It’s in human nature.

“You see, the reason the prince of Persia in the heavens withstood Gabriel was that his master Satan was hostile toward Israel and didn’t want Daniel and Israel to understand the revelation God had for them. He didn’t want them to know God’s plan, and so he seeks to prevent Gabriel from delivering the diplomatic pouch of information.

“In Daniel, you see the Gentile nations have representation in the angelic realm and the nation Israel has representation in angelic world. In fact, the commander and chief of all the armies of heaven is called their angel—Michael. His job in the prophetic program is to guard and protect the nation Israel, and to see that the nation Israel is secured so they can accomplish God’s purpose. That verse in Psalms where it says God will ‘give His angels charge over thee’; that’s what that’s talking about! That’s not talking about you riding down the freeway and missing a big pothole!”

*****

In the Koran, Mohammed says it took Gabriel only a day to get from heaven to earth. The Koran teaches that the distance from earth to heaven, where God is, is how far a man can walk in a thousand days.

Jordan says, “Now you know where they got such a wild idea as that? Mohammed almost verbatim assimilated the mysticism of the paganism in the world in which he lived to that point and many other points.

“The mysticism from pagans, their writings, he just put right in. That’s why Mohammed says it takes a day for Gabriel to come. Why? Because ‘one day with the Lord is as a thousand years.’ So he figures, ‘Okay, he can walk that far in a thousand days, so a thousand a day,’ and he makes it a day and makes that the distance.

“Now, you know what the problem with that was? When Mohammed lived there was a great scientific center in Egypt called Alexandria; the greatest library the world had at that point, the repository of the wisdom and the science of Greece and so forth. And they actually had people there in Alexandria—in the 7^th and 8^th centuries—who were teaching that the sun was the center of our solar system, and that the planets revolved around the sun rather than everything around the earth as most people thought at the time.

“The stuff that astrology is based on today they taught then. So, the idea that the distance between there and heaven is as far as a guy could walk in a thousand days, well they went, ‘Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo.’ And you know what happened? Slit! When you disagree with Mohammed he comes in with the centaur and converts you and eliminates your opposition.”

(Editor’s Note: In Daniel 9, Daniel predicts to the exact day when Jesus Christ presented Himself as king to the nation Israel, riding down off the mount of Olives on a colt the foal of an ass. Jordan says, “It’s not just years, months, somewhere close, but exactly the number of days it’s going to be until it comes to pass, and it’s fulfilled right on the day! The Lord Jesus Christ, in Luke 19, says, ‘This is the day!’ and tells Israel they’re accountable to know that because the Scripture laid it out for them. I mean, you’d have to be poisoned in your understanding not to see the Bible’s the Word of God.”)