First, I must thank you for your various works, especially your “The Bible thru the eyes of its writers”. It’s really helped me understand the books of Revelation and Job.
Here’s my question: recently, I read that God’s “throne room” scene referenced in Revelation 5 is depicted in Daniel 7: 7-11. I looked it up and saw that the “little horn” is mentioned in verse 8, but the throne room scene begins in verse 9. Does this mean that only after the Antichrist is revealed that the seal opening begins? Does this interfere with the timing of the rapture? Or are these verses not sequential? What do you think?
Notice that everything is happening at once. In verse 7 Daniel saw the 4th beast with 10 horns (revived Rome) And while he was thinking about the horns he spotted the little horn, the anti-Christ. These are things that happen on Earth. As he was looking at the horns, he also saw thrones being set in place with the Ancient of Days and 10,000 times 10,000 standing before Him. These things happen in Heaven at the same time as those on Earth.
Daniel’s vision doesn’t reveal the number of thrones or who sat on them, nor dies it identify the huge number standing before the Ancient of Days. It’s purpose is to show God’s version of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2, with wild animals in place of the different metals, the 10 horns as the toes of iron mixed with clay and the Lord as the stone cut without hands that became a mountain filling the whole Earth.
Both were overviews of Gentile Dominion, and neither one contains any clear reference to the Church. With the additional knowledge gained from Revelation we can see hints of the church in the multiple thrones and the large numbers around them in Daniel 7, but that’s incidental to the purpose of the vision.
In short it would be a mistake to use Daniel 7 to contradict the later and more detailed vision of Revelation, which depicts the Throne of God with the Raptured Church in chapters 4-5, the anti-Christ’s introduction in the first seal of chapter 6 and his ascension to world leadership with Satan’s indwelling in chapter 13.