Daniel 8 - The War between the Ram and the Goat

Hello friends, I'm Chadwick Harvey, and this is Faithful Performance, where we explore the testimony of the biblical prophets and how they perfectly correlate with the current events of today. Thank you for joining us.

In this episode, we're going to discover Daniel 8 as we conclude our three-part series on Daniel 2, Daniel 7, and now Daniel 8. Before we begin, it's important to understand what we covered in the previous two videos: the four kingdoms described in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, and how we're starting to see those kingdoms come to fulfillment at the end of the age. We also established in those videos how we know we are living in the times and seasons that the biblical prophets ordained as the terminal generation — the last generation.

With that in mind, let's briefly revisit the foundational framework before touching on Daniel 8. When we look at the seven-day creation account, I believe it is the beginning of understanding how to read the end of the age, because it is deeply prophetic. The Lord worked six days and rested on the seventh, establishing a pattern of working six and resting on the seventh. We are commanded to follow the same pattern with the Sabbath day. In Leviticus 25, the children of Israel were ordered to work six years and rest on the seventh year, extending that same pattern from days to years.

Now, when we look at 2 Peter 3:8 and Psalm 90, the Scripture says that a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day. I believe this takes us back to the seven-day creation plan. Applied prophetically, it means the earth will work 6,000 years — six completed days. Then on the seventh day, the 7,000th year, that is the Day of the Lord. That is the day when Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, returns for his second coming. For a thousand years he will reign — from the 7,000th year to the 8,000th year. The eighth day, then, represents eternity, which is consistent with the number eight signifying new beginnings and new life.

This is where our understanding of the end of the age begins. From Adam to the Messiah was four completed days, or 4,000 completed years. From the Messiah until now has been nearly two completed days, or approximately 2,000 years. That gives us a total of nearly six completed days, or close to 6,000 completed years — meaning we are knocking on the door of that seventh day, the 7,000th year, when the Messiah will return. When the biblical prophets speak of "the Day of the Lord," they are speaking of that seventh day, that millennial rest, just as there was a day of rest and a year of rest. This is not about setting dates, but when you do the calculation, you can see that we are living at the end of the age, before his return to sit on David's everlasting throne in Jerusalem and rule the nations.

Coming into more modern times, Israel becoming a nation again in 1948 was a massive marker on God's prophetic timeline. I believe it was the marker that opened the door for the rest of the end-of-age prophecies to be fulfilled — including Daniel 2, Daniel 7, and, as we will see today, Daniel 8. Then 1967 had to come as well, with the children of Israel recapturing Jerusalem as their capital during the Six-Day War. Those are critical markers. The Jewish people had to be back in the promised land; they had to control Jerusalem. There has been an aliyah — a return — of over four million Jewish people to the promised land since 1948, which is extraordinary.

We are seeing all of these signs and markers converging, pointing to the imminent return of the Messiah. The four kingdoms described in Daniel 2, Daniel 7, and Daniel 8 are rising as we speak. This is the basic framework for understanding where we are on God's prophetic timeline, alongside 1948, 1967, and the restoration of Israel. Add to this what the Messiah himself warned about in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25 — all of these signs coming together at one time, just as he commanded us to watch, to pay attention, to be a wise virgin and not a foolish one, to keep our lamps filled with oil. We are to understand what is happening in the world so that we can anticipate the blessed hope — the Redeemer, the King, the Messiah — coming to restore all things, first in Israel and Jerusalem, and then among the nations.

In the last two videos we covered Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, where the four kingdoms are established. I believe those two chapters confirm and mirror each other. Importantly, the prophet himself told us who the kingdoms are — we did not have to guess. Both Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 describe the same four kingdoms in sequence.

The first kingdom is the Babylonian Empire — modern-day Iraq — represented by gold in Nebuchadnezzar's statue dream in Daniel 2, and as the lion in Daniel 7. The second kingdom is Medo-Persia — modern-day Iran — represented by silver in Daniel 2 and as the bear in Daniel 7. The third kingdom is Yavan — which some translations render as "Greece," but this refers to Turkey, the territory of the old Grecian Empire — represented by bronze in Daniel 2 and as the leopard in Daniel 7. The fourth kingdom in Daniel 2 is iron, the kingdom that crushes everything. This is the Antichrist kingdom, the beast kingdom, with ten toes representing ten kings. In Daniel 7, this fourth kingdom has ten horns on its head.

This fourth kingdom ties directly into Revelation 13:1–2, where John saw one beast with ten horns. He described it as a lion, a bear, and a leopard combined — meaning the first three beast kingdoms of Daniel 7 become a conglomerate within the fourth kingdom. It is the same beast: the fourth kingdom of Daniel 2 with its ten toes, and the fourth kingdom of Daniel 7 with its ten horns, are the same kingdom. And in both chapters, we then see the return of the Messiah, who crushes the ten toes, destroys the entire statue, and establishes a kingdom that will endure forever.

This is the beautiful correlation between Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. Yes, these things did happen in history with Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and Alexander — but as we know, history repeats itself, and it will happen again. Daniel 2 explicitly states that this vision is for the latter days, and that in the days of these kings the Messiah, the stone, will return and crush them together. They will not be spread across 2,500 years. They will rise in sequence, one after another, and then the stone will crush them and set up the everlasting kingdom — the seventh day, the 7,000th year.

Daniel 12:4 said the book is sealed until the time of the end. That time of the end is not 2,500 years ago — that was not the latter days in the full eschatological sense, and applying it there runs into serious problems. The latter days are when all four kingdoms rise in sequence. We have started to see that come to fruition since 2003 and forward.

Now, Daniel 8 is the transition chapter between the second kingdom and the third kingdom. We have already seen Babylon — Iraq — fall, and Iran has been the dominant superpower of the Middle East. Daniel 8 shows us the transition from Iran to Turkey, after which Turkey becomes the dominant superpower of the Middle East before itself splitting apart, the ten kings emerging, and subsequent events unfolding — all of which we will work through in this episode.

There is always an interpretation given for these dreams and visions. In Daniel 2, Daniel and his three friends provided the interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar. In Daniel 7, an interpreter was given for the vision — and the same is true in Daniel 8.