My name is John Witcombe and I and my wife, Sharon have worked in pastoral ministry for the Seventh-day Adventist Church since 1994. We have one married daughter who has made us proud grandparents. 

 

In January of 2010 I read an original version of Uriah Smith’s Daniel and the Revelation. As I read his commentary on Daniel 11:45, I immediately saw the relevancy of what he wrote to what was happening in our world today. Smith was making application of this verse to the geopolitical conditions of his day. I simply translated that to our day and I saw that something very sobering was about to take place.

 

What you will discover when you understand the interpretation of the prophecy of Daniel 11:45 is that the situation in our world today is shaping up to bring about the fulfilment of this verse and its fulfillment will impact everyone on planet earth. You will not be able to understand the interpretation of this verse until you understand the preceding 44 verses. And the beautiful thing about this chapter is that anyone who has access to historical records can decipher the prophecies in this chapter sufficiently to be able to know the meaning of verse 45. The fact is, chapter 11 is simply a collection of news headlines from a specific region of this world that were given to Daniel that span the time from the kingdom of Medo-Persia down to our very day. Why would God give us such a detailed list of news headlines to watch for? He wants us to know when we are getting close to that event described in Daniel 12:1.

 

After I found a statement that Ellen White wrote regarding Smith’s book – that interest in his book is to continue to the close of probation – I decided to write a book to help fulfill this statement: “The interest in Daniel and the Revelation is to continue as long as probationary time shall last. God used the author of this book as a channel through which to communicate light to direct minds to the truth. Shall we not appreciate this light, which points us to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, our King?” 1MR 63.

 

It is my prayer that Jerusalem Caliphate and the Third Jihad will reignite interest in Uriah Smith’s book.