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The Holy People In Daniel 12: 7, Daniel 8: 24 and In Isaiah 62: 10-12
On a Christian forum a guy said that the holy people of Daniel 12: 7 are not Christians, and specifically not the Christian Remnant as I had said. He
claims that "The "holy people" in view are, I believe, Jews."
Your disagreement that the holy people in Daniel 12: 7 are the
Christian Remnant, or the Remnant of Israel, in the very last days of
time comes out of dispensationalism. I have never had someone clearly
in the Reformed camp comment on Daniel 12: 7. Many are
amillennialists, though not all, who overly allegorize Revelation 20:
1-8, as well as Revelation 7 and 14 on the 144,000 - and tend not to
study in much detail much of end time Bible prophecy. Many Calvinists
may not have any interpretation of Daniel 12: 7.
There are two other places in the Old Testament where holy people is
used. Its used also in Daniel 8: 24, "And his power shall be mighty,
but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall
prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy
people."
"He" is not Alexander. In the ancient time line the dispensationalists
would say "He" is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and the Holy People have to
be physical Israel. Dispensationalists would say "He" in the end times
is their one man world leader, the anti-Christ.
But John said in I John 2: 18 that there were many anti-Christs and in
the very end time there are likely to be several leaders who have a
great deal of the spirit of anti-Christ. They, in the end times, are
to "destroy the mighty and holy people," who are Christians.
Though Antiochus Epiphanes was the original model, in the last days
when the transgressors are come to the full, the king (or kings, world
leaders) of fierce countenance and who understand dark sentences, are
more important.
What dark sentences means has been another subject never fully
understood. I have heard it said that this is understanding of end
time metaphoric language. Certainly the dragon and his human minions
at the highest level understand something of metaphor. And dark
sentences may refer to the understandings and utterances of men high
in the secret societies, who are world leaders. And - interestingly,
dark sentences can refer to the use of the Hegelian dialectic, to the
dialectical materialism of Marxism and its more recent popularity as a
manipulative and deceptive attitude and belief changing procedure in
dialogue.
The holy people are also in Isaiah 62: 12, "Go through, go through
the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the
highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
Behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, say ye to
the daughter of Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh; behold his reward
is with him, and his word before him. And they shall call them, The
holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: and they shall be called,
Sought out, A cry not forsaken."
The dispensationalists can claim the holy people in Isaiah 62: 12 are
only physical Israel. They are Israel all right, but not only physical
Israel, that is "All physical Israel."
There is too much of Jesus Christ in Isaiah 62: 10-12. I would be very
careful not to replace the holy people born again in Jesus Christ with
"all Unsaved Israel." Certainly, a small remnant of physical Israel
(Romans 11: 5) were transformed and became reborn in Christ and are a
part of that spiritual house mentioned in I Peter 2: 5.
And Daniel 12: 7 is also about Jesus Christ and the time of this
prophecy is the very end times. It says "...when he shall have
accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things
shall be finished." To argue that the holy people here in this
prophecy are all physical Israelites, not born again in Christ, is not
something I would not want to do. You don't want to replace Christ's
people with people not born again in him.
But I am tired of argument with dispenationalism and generally avoid
it unless something new can be learned.