My Experience as Youth Pastor

I actually enjoy history. I keep this bit of information secret because then people might wonder why I hate learning history so much. If you asked what my least favorite class was in school it was history. The problem is learning dates. My brain just isn't wired for dates. I honestly have trouble with the most basic of information like my birthday. It isn't that I can't remember numbers. I can remember certain kinds of numbers like no bodies business. I can tell you my phone number from when I was 14 years old. I know IP addresses for servers I setup years ago. I just can't remember dates very well. I can't spell in English either. I can spell perfectly in 3 other languages but not English. I have a great vocabulary but terribly spelling.

I digress. My point is that history is fun and exciting and knowing the key events from the ancient Middle East to Rome really opens up your understanding of the Bible. I've been working on giving history to my Young Adults group as I go through an end times study from Daniel, Matthew 24, and Revelation. We are on Daniel 7 and I have learned some things myself that were never taught in any of my history classes. I was able to run down these details because of what I did learn. One thing jumped out at me because of one of the few dates I actually remember from history.

70 AD. This is the year that Rome sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. I applied this bit of random trivia to some information I was researching as I tried t make sense of the 4^th beast in Daniel 7. The beast has 10 horns and those horns are 10 rulers. Then a small horn rises up and pushes out 3 of those rulers before boasting and persecuting the saints. Rome was initially a republic and so the ruler was the people and then there were 9 emperors from Julius Caesar to 69 AD. In 68 AD Nero dies leaving Rome in civil war. There are a total of 4 emperors in 69 AD. The first 3 die very quickly and the last sets up a new dynasty. This emperor (Caesar Flavius) buys off all the historians to ensure history is written to suit him. He also is responsible for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

I can't guarantee that this is the correct interpretation for the vision, but it seems to fit. I had searched this out but haven't really seen the idea anywhere else. As I study this more I find there are some amazing details that are revealed and even more details given so that we can know what to expect. I think this is the reason I like history. When you really get into it there is a mystery that presents itself and I love solving mysteries.

Connect the dots and you will see that there is truth in this mystery.