Entering the Glorious Land

“He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown…”(Daniel 11:41).

James White believed this power, spoken of in the final verses of Daniel 11, to be the papacy supported by the United States. Prophetic and historic evidence, as well as current events, support his interpretation as never before.

The idea that Israel and the Middle East are central to the fulfillment of eschatological prophecy has most of the world looking in another direction, while the purposes of the papacy move steadily forward. The present focus on Islamic terrorism is perhaps one of the cleverest smoke screens ever concocted to divert our attention from the divinely inspired prophetic picture laid out in Daniel 11 and Revelation 13. The fear of terrorism has led to the theft of our civil liberties, a direct fulfillment of the transformation from “lamb-like” to “dragon-like” noted in Revelation 13:11.

Yet the greatest and most significant mistake being made by Christians at large, and U.S. foreign policy in particular, is our refusal to understand that the “glorious land,” designated by God as literal Palestine, has long since been transferred to the shores of America. This is the land designated in Bible prophecy as the “earth” that helps the “woman” (Revelation 12:14-16). America is the “place” designated by God for His New Testament church, the land that swallowed the flood of persecution during the latter part of the Dark Ages. And here, on this continent of America, God’s prophetic prediction in Revelation 13:11 has come to pass. Another “beast” (earthly power), was seen rising up out of the earth (American continent), having two horns like a lamb (Christ-like principles of civil and religious liberty) and speaking like a dragon (civil and religious restrictions/persecution).

This glorious land of America, blessed with economic prosperity and religious freedom, is now about to lose both according to Bible prophecy.

This glorious land of America, blessed with economic prosperity and religious freedom, is now about to lose both according to Bible prophecy. The fear of terrorism is the vehicle that is lifting these liberties. The lamb-like freedom we once enjoyed is now the most endangered species on Planet Earth.  The king of the north is entering this glorious land while most of the world is being led to believe that literal Israel is the key to end-time prophecy and Muslim extremists are our greatest threat.

Jesus Christ, in His personal discourse on end-time prophecy repeatedly warned us to look out for false religious teachings (Matthew 24:4, 5, 11, 24). He also specifically instructed believers not to be “terrified” by “wars” and “instability” (Luke 21:9). Terrorism and economic instability, the very things Jesus warned us not to fear, are the very means by which the prophetic scenario outlined in Daniel 11 and Revelation 13 are being fulfilled. The papacy is entering into the glorious land. The government of America is steadily transitioning from its “lamb-like” principles. We are on the verge of a stupendous crisis. Our only safety is to “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Revelation 14:4). Amen.

The Old Testament Glorious Land

Biblically the “glorious land” represents the place God designated for His church. In the Old Testament this place was Palestine, a land that offered His people religious liberty and economic prosperity. These are two identifying marks of the glorious land based on God’s promises to Israel:

1. Religious Freedom to Worship—”And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:15, NKJV).
2. Economic Blessings—”And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey…” (Exodus 3:8).

The Bible indicates that the “land flowing with milk and honey” is therefore the “glory of all lands” (Ezekiel 20:6, 15).

The glorious land was definitely Palestine for literal Israel. Yet is Palestine now a land flowing with milk and honey (economically blessed)? Is it a land of religious freedom (the Jews have no temple)? And how has the nation of Israel responded to the covenant promises fulfilled by Messiah? The answers to these questions are vital for a correct interpretation and understanding of Bible prophecy today.

The answers to these questions will either steer us in the right or wrong direction prophetically. If we follow evangelical thinking we will end up with a Middle East/literal Israel focus. If we follow the Bible and end-time prophecy, our direction will focus on the papacy and the U.S. (Revelation 13).

The New Testament Glorious Land

Throughout the New Testament (as well as in some prophecies of the Old Testament), the Bible makes a transition from literal Jews to spiritual Jews (Hosea 2:23, Romans 2:28, 29; Galatians 3:29; Romans 9-11). In Revelation 12 we find this transition from literal to spiritual Israel in the prophetic language of symbols. Chapter 12 opens with a vision of a “woman.” Both in the Old Testament (OT) and in the New Testament (NT) a woman is a symbol of God’s church (Jeremiah 6:2; 2 Corinthians 11:2).

In Revelation 12:2 the symbolic woman is pregnant. Her child is Jesus who was born a Jew to the Jewish nation/church. In verse 4 the dragon/devil seeks to destroy the child Jesus when He is born. This was fulfilled by Herod (Matthew 2:13-16). In verse 5 the child is caught up to God in heaven, representing the resurrection of Christ.

This part of the prophecy took place in Palestine (the glorious land of literal Israel) where the Jewish church gave birth to Jesus, the Messiah.

After the death of Christ, God’s church, the women, transitioned from literal Israel to spiritual Israel.

As the prophecy progresses in verse 6, the woman no longer represents literal Israel but has now transitioned to spiritual Israel fleeing from persecution during the 42 prophetic month period of the Dark Ages. In verse 7 we find a mini “repeat and enlarge” taking us back to the war in heaven and showing the impact of the cross on that war (verses 7-12). Then, in verse 13 the woman is again brought to view in her Dark Age’s saga, being persecuted by the dragon. In verse 14 she is given wings of an eagle so that she might fly into her “place.” Verses 6 and 14 present a major prophetic transition in God’s church. Both the woman and her place have changed from literal Israel and Palestine to spiritual Israel and the new “place” God has prepared for her. At this critical junction of the passage it is important to understand three points outlined in the prophecy and confirmed both in the New Testament and in the history of the church:

1. After the death of Christ, God’s church, the women, transitioned from literal Israel to spiritual Israel.
2. God’s church, the woman, moved from literal Palestine to her “place” given to her by God.
3. This woman is the focal point of end-time prophecy.

Failing to make the transition from literal Israel to spiritual Israel, and from literal Palestine to the “place,” will leave us focused on the wrong people and in the wrong place.

The woman in the latter part of this prophecy represents spiritual Israel, all who are in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28; Romans 2:28, 29). It is primarily the Christian church.

The wilderness in Revelation 12 verse 6 represents her escape to refuge in various areas of Europe during the Dark Ages. The wilderness “place” of verse 14, later designated as the “earth,” represents the American continent, the territory where the “beast” with lamb-like horns eventually rises (Revelation 12:14-16; 13:11). It was the continent of America that gave the woman (spiritual Israel) a new “place” prepared by God, and swallowed up the waters of religious persecution in Europe.

America meets both of the previous identifying marks of the glorious land as it applied to literal Israel:

1. Religious Freedom to Worship—America gave the women (spiritual Israel) freedom of worship.
2. Economic Blessings—America is a land of economic blessings (flowing with milk and honey).

In fact, God used the same terminology to describe the NT church or spiritual Israel being taken to her “place” in America as He used to describe the OT church when He took her into the glorious land of Palestine:

“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (Revelation 12:14).

“Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself” (Exodus 19:4).

In Revelation 12, God uses the same symbolism for the deliverance of spiritual Israel as He did for literal Israel, “eagles’ wings.” God’s people were taken both to the glorious land of Palestine and to the American continent (her “place”), with wings of an eagle. Prophecy is making a direct connection here between literal Israel and spiritual Israel so that we can see the transition from Palestine (OT glorious land) to the “place” (NT glorious land) for the woman and her remnant seed.

Summary

Revelation 12 presents us with a prophetic outline of God’s church in the symbolic form of a woman. In the first part of Revelation 12, the woman is the literal Jewish church located in Palestine, the glorious land flowing with milk and honey (economically blessed), a place where God’s people were to worship Him in freedom. The latter part of the same prophecy makes use of the same symbols that took literal Israel on their journey to Palestine to now describe the journey of the woman (spiritual Israel) in the NT context. The new “place” of religious freedom, the place she was taken to by God is the “earth” or America. Today Israel is spiritual and the “glorious land” is America, the “place” God gave for His NT church to experience economic and religious prosperity. Both have been realized over the last 200 years, but this is soon to end. This eschatological present day “glorious land” of America is going through a major transition predicted in Bible prophecy. Daniel 11:41 indicates that the “king of the north” will enter into this NT glorious land and many will fall. We stand on the very verge of this prophetic transition noted in the following prophetic verses:

Revelation 13

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Revelation 13:11-15).

Here we find the second beast rising out of the earth, America, with lamb-like horns [religious/civil liberty] but then speaking like a dragon and making an image to the leopard-like beast [papacy]. The implication being that these two powers have joined together, that the influence of the papacy has now entered into the “place” or New Testament “glorious land” (America) that God gave to His people to enjoy religious liberty and economic blessing. America, once a haven of religious and civil liberty, will, through the influence of the papacy, compromise these liberties.

Daniel 11

“He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon” (Daniel 11:41).

The entering into the glorious land refers to the king of the north [papacy] entering into America through a unity with Protestantism. In the context of Daniel 11, this prophecy is in the process of fulfillment marked by striking historical events like: the official appointment  of a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and opening of diplomatic relationships in 1984; holy alliance between the Vatican and U.S. to bring down communism in 1982-1989; Catholics and Protestants uniting on political and spiritual platforms in the 1990s to present day; six Catholic Supreme Court justices as of 2010, unprecedented in Supreme Court history; three American presidents attending the funeral of John Paul II, (2005); and, the pope’s recent visit to the U.S., during which he addressed the U.S. Congress and the United Nations (2015).

An additional note:

It may be suggested that Edom, Moab, and Ammon represent peoples of the Middle East, directing us back to a literal interpretation of the glorious land, but we should also consider the larger scope of these two prophetic predictions. They both focus on a worldwide enforcement of the mark in contrast to a worldwide enlightenment of the gospel. In this context, Isaiah 11 gives us much-needed insight to the identity of these three tribes. It describes them as obeying the call of God in the context of end-time prophecy. It is not a coincidence that both of these eschatological prophecies (Isaiah 11 and Daniel 11) predict the escape of these same three tribes.

“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them” (Isaiah 11:10-14).

James Rafferty

James has spent more than 30 years preaching the gospel around the world in revival seminars and evangelistic meetings. He and his wife Risë have two adult children, Jeiel and Kierra.