What We've Lost

Daniel 10: 7-12
7 I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. 8 So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. 9 Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground.
10 A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 He said, "Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you." And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.
12 Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."

Angels don't really exist. Demons don't really exist. Right? We moderns have moved beyond all of this mythology! We know that we're the ones in control. Science is our mythology and our own will and work is what determines our path.

of course... the more one tells himself that... the more passages like this slap him in the face. I wish to ask you to consider the consequences of this these verses. Daniel has been fasting and praying for understanding of the End Times. It was God's Will that Daniel be immediately answered, and He dispatched an angel the instant He heard the prayer.

But the angel of God was delayed by the "Prince of Persia". Now the King of Persia was a human being that is mentioned at the very begining of Chapter 10. This was not talking about him. The angel was talking about another spiritual being... who held dominion over Persia. Indeed God's angel was not free to do God's will until Michael, another of God's angels, and a much stronger one, showed up to handle the Prince of Persia himself.

Later in the chapter the angel says that he must return to once again face the Prince of Persia with Michael, and he points out that the Prince of Greece is on his way.

This is but one example of many throughout the Bible... verses here and there that we've ignored quite deliberately.

See... we don't really often sit down and just read the Word. We get a study manual which tells us to skip around from here to there... so we get what the author wants us to get. Verses like this one never seem to make it into those manuals.

The questions it raises are legitmate and important though. The Western demythologized version of Christianity is the new thing. Its the isolated system. The old teachings... the old church... the orthodox church... they are still well aware of a spiritual battle between spiritual forces among us.

But we're to smart for that. Right?