Daniel 12:5

"Then I, Daniel, looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on the brink of the river on this side, and the other on the brink of the river on that side. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever that it shall be for a time, and times, and a half; and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."

"How long shall it be to the end of these wonders ..." (Daniel 12:6)." This means, "How long shall it be to the end of the world, the general resurrection of the just and the wicked, and the glorification of the saints of God? The answer came back that all of these wonders would come at the end of time, and times, and a half. Fortunately, we know exactly what this means. It is the totality of all the time between the First Advent of Jesus Christ and the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. (See under Daniel 7:25 for an elaboration of this.)

The most dreadful and terrible thing in this little paragraph is the raw prediction that, "THEY SHALL MAKE AN END OF BREAKING IN PIECES THE POWER OF THE HOLY PEOPLE." That cannot possibly have any reference to Antiochus Epiphanes, for his persecutions in no manner made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people (The Jews). The meaning here comes far beyond the events of the Maccabean period. "The breaking in pieces of the power of the holy people" is a reference to the near-extermination of Christianity which shall occur near the end of the whole dispensation when the time, and times, and a half are about concluded. Revelation 16 develops this very same idea, revealing a future time when the total spiritual environment on the whole earth shall be seriously if not indeed fatally polluted. It was of this period that Christ inquired, "When the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the earth" (Luke 18:8).

Note the terminology here, "breaking in pieces the power of the holy people." What can this be if not indeed the utter fragmentation of Christendom by literally hundreds and hundreds of denominations, sects, cults, fads, etc?

Note in this connection that "the holy people" is by no stretch of the imagination a reference to racial Israel. No! The reference is to God's TRUE ISRAEL, the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is positively the ONLY ISRAEL God has ever had since the birth of the Son of God.