About 2600 years ago, a very wise man, Daniel, was living in the empire known as Babylon. A Hebrew youth, he had been taken captive by the Babylonian army when the emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered the kingdom of Judah.
Daniel was a seer; he had an uncanny knack for seeing events accurately in historical context. But even beyond that special awareness, he was able to see clearly where history was headed.
He was prescient.
In the book that was written about this man, it is written that the emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, recognizes the young prophet’s gifting. So the emperor leans on Daniel for advice about upcoming events.
And so, later, a book was written about Daniel; it makes a written record of what this extraordinarily wise man said while he was alive on this earth.
In the 11th chapter of the book of Daniel, for instance, we find a curiously prescient description of a certain history-making leader:
“Then shall arise . . . a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom; but within a few days he shall be destroyed . . .
“And in his place shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. . .
“And after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully; for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.”
In 20th-century history, we find a disturbing parallel.
The last Kaiser of Germany was deposed at the conclusion of World War I.
The name of that royal family was “Hohenzollern,” which, translated, means Raiser of Taxes.
The reign of their last regent, Kaiser Wilhelm II, came to a world-war end when his authority in Germany was cancelled at the conclusion of World War I and then replaced by a a modern governmental arrangement called "republic." In this case it was named the Weimar Republic, after the name of the city where the plans and documents were officiated.
But the Weimar Republic did not last. It was severely unstable during the 1920’s and ’30’s. By 1930’s, a dictatorial madmen, Adolf Hitler, had manipulated the desperate discontent of his German countrymen, a rage drummed up because of to their post-WWI dire economic circumstances, on which Hitler blamed the Allies, France and Britain etc. But that vile person's evil genius played advantageously upon their rage. Ultimately Adolf Hitler, by flattery of the German people’s defeated prideful identity, crafted their discontent into an accession to power for his National Socialist (Nazi) party.
So we notice in this 20th century turn of events, an historical parallel. . .
In parallel to certain ancient historical events in Babylon foretold by Daniel, a “raiser of taxes” is replaced by a “vile person.”
In Daniel’s prescient report of events long ago we notice his identification of the historical beastly archetype, now recurring twice in modern times:
“And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper until the indignation be accomplished . . .
“Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor what women want, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.
“But instead, he shall honor the god of forces.”
Now, in the 21st-century Ukrainians are forced to suffer the manipulations of a contemporary manifestation of that beastly archetype, identified long ago by the prophet Daniel: a lawless dictator who does as he pleases without regard for God nor Man:
In both cases, Hitler's and Putin's, their excuse for war desecration is claimed upon rescuing their favored ethnic population from isolation in an adjoining country. For Hitler, the excuse was for Sudeten ethnic Germans in Czech lands; for Putin the fake justification is the Russians in Ukraine/Donbas.
It's forceful excuse for beastly murderous destruction. . . with no legitimately moral justification, but honoring instead the "god of forces," as identified long ago by the ancient prophet, not the God of Justice and Mercy.
We must not let Vlad the MAD get away with this. Eighty-four years ago, Hitler got away with his taking of Czechoslovakia, and look how long it took to fix that problem. . . a whole damned world war!
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