The Word Unleashed Tom Pennington

There are many unbelievers in the world today who overtly deny the rule of God over all things in heaven and on earth. Although most Christians wouldn’t overtly deny such a reality, it is possible to subtly deny God’s sovereignty by the way we live.

The Bible teaches that God is sovereign, which simply means that He exercises absolute control over all things. For us as Christians, this means that God controls every aspect of our lives. He is said to be our King and our Lord. The Bible also teaches about God and His providence; that is, He works out His sovereignty in every moment of our individual lives.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we must recognize that God is not only sovereign over all of human history but also over the details of our individual lives. The philosophies of the world teach that things happen by chance, fate, or coincidence. But the Bible teaches otherwise.

At its heart, Daniel 11 is a powerful reminder and great reassurance for us, as Christians, that God is on His throne and that one day all the kingdoms and nations will be handed over to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Until then, rulers, empires, and governments will rise and fall; they will be here one day and then gone another. But for God and His plan and purposes, they will never be shaken.

Daniel’s vision and prophecy in Daniel 11 span the course of human history, beginning with events that happened 300 years after his time and progressing to future events that haven’t transpired yet. As chapter 11 ends, Daniel describes a man known as Antichrist, the greatest and last human ruler the earth will ever see.

Antiochus Epiphanes was a Seleucid king who greatly persecuted the Jews, the people of God, during the 2nd century BC. But 250–300 years before that persecution began, Daniel wrote an incredibly accurate prophecy describing how such horrific things would happen to the nation of Israel.