The Non-Prophet’s Guide® to the Book of Daniel - Part 2 | Guest: Todd Hampson

Blessings to Israel presents Discerning the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Now in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's program.

Welcome to Discerning the Times. My name is Brian Thomas. Such a blessing to be with you as always alongside co-host Dr. Bruce Logan. And we are excited today to welcome back our great friend Todd Hampson for part two of our discussion on his recent book, The Non-Prophet's Guide to the Book of Daniel.

So we will bring them in shortly. But before we do, I want to remind you that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. If you have never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I encourage you to do so today. I plead with you to do so today because, folks, as we look around in the world today, it should be obvious that there are things that are happening that lets us know we're on the verge of what I believe and what many believe is the appearance of our great Lord and Messiah. But whether he's appearing to us soon to the earth physically or whether it's going to be later on down the road, either way, we have to leave this earth either through way of the rapture or through natural death. So if you have never received him, you are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire. So please come to Jesus Christ on today.

All right, folks. Well, thanks again for tuning in with us. Again, we are welcoming back Todd Hampson, who is a speaker, illustrator, animation producer and the best selling author of the Non-Prophet's Guide book series. He is also the co-host of the Prophecy Pros podcast alongside Jeff Kinley, a great podcast that we highly recommend. And Todd's award winning animation company, Timbuktoons, has produced content for many well-known ministry organizations.

He and his wife are the proud parents of three grown children and make their home in Georgia. So, Todd, I want to welcome you back and I need to add that you are the most prolific author out there that I know of because it seems like I close my eyes and go to bed. And when I wake up the next morning, you have another book rolling out. So keep up the great work. And thank you for joining. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thanks, man. It's a blessing. Definitely a labor of love, man. I was telling somebody today, I'm blown away that I get to do this and I get to go to heaven, too.

It's just unfair. Oh, man. Well, I tell you, Todd, I look forward to the day when we stand before Christ and he starts handing out rewards. And when he calls your name, oh, man, because you are doing such great work and you're just going to have so many great rewards waiting for you in eternity. So I'm looking forward to that time. So going to pull in my co-host, Dr. Bruce Logan.

Doc, always glad to have you with us. And I know you're excited about the Book of Daniel because it's something that we talk about quite extensively privately and on the podcast. I am extremely excited once again to be able to talk with Todd, who is absolutely one of my favorite authors, as you stated. And also, I just want to throw this caveat in, because you just mentioned that when Todd stands before God to receive his reward, and a thought just came to my mind. I would love to be standing right directly behind Todd.

And when that day comes, that'd be great, because hopefully that I will be able to, maybe some of that residue, some of that blessing will come on me. Because Todd is just such an amazing author. He's on the short list of my absolute favorites, him and Jeff. They do just an incredible, incredible job. And the way you write, and I just wanted to say this, with the illustrations, that is my absolute favorite way to study, the way to write, the way to present. Because you write in such a way that if you're a beginner, it can be plain and simple, but even if you're a seasoned vet in studying prophecy, you can also gain things from.

I can't even come up with the words. I'm just so excited to be able to have you on once again. Well, thank you so much. And likewise, brothers, I know you guys do some amazing ministry work, and I'm privileged to know you guys. The one good thing about the Bema Seat is we get to lay those crowns at Jesus' feet. So whatever we get, the glory is going to be that we can give it to the Lord. And man, can you imagine that moment where we're going to see our Savior face to face? And whatever we have, we'll be able to give to Him, to honor Him, what a time that'll be.

It's going to be an awesome moment. Absolutely. And Todd, how about all of this praise coming to you from a Ohio State Buckeyes football fan? That says a lot. I'm a dog guy, man.

All three of my kids went to UGA, so I'm a dog fan for life, I guess. So yeah, that goes to show you that brothers in Christ can overlook all kinds of offenses. Yeah, we have to pray for each other on that. All right, well, I'll toss it to Dr. Logan.

What question do you have for Todd to kick us off for this week? Yeah, first of all, again, as I mentioned, I just love your book and I just love your writing and your writing style, just to reiterate. And I'm not just saying that just because I have you on.

I've said that to Brian Oft here. And you're just amazing. I actually have a copy of your book here right in front of me. And as soon as I hear that you got a new book out, I'm like going to my Amazon app immediately. Oh, man. Praise the Lord. I'm humbled. But your recent book is described as a non-threatening and easy to understand.

And how do you take these deep theological concepts and make them accessible so that everyone, whether you're a beginner or a scholar, can really grasp and get something from? Yeah, you bet. It's definitely intentional. I mean, we definitely live in a post-Christian culture. I grew up unchurched. And one of the things that kind of initially kind of broke through and made me consider the claims of Christ, because I believed I thought the Bible is a book of fairy tales. I thought we evolved from monkeys.

I mean, a whole nine yards. I just thought there was no God. But the one thing I couldn't shake that when it was shown to me is fulfilled Bible prophecy. So I have a heart for the seeker. I have the heart and I mean the real seeker, not somebody who's just a doubter, but somebody who's like, I really just want to know what truth is. So I write books with those people in mind. And also, just to be honest, I like deep theology, but I don't like the super heady language or the super academic aspect of it. Like those books are just hard for me. If it takes you 10 minutes to get through a paragraph, that's just too dense and too complex. So I try to write in a conversational way that the everyday person like myself can get. To be honest, I just write books that I would want to see the visual side and how I'd want to see them written so that I could understand it. And as it turns out, a lot of other people like that format as well.

Amen. It's an amazing format. I don't believe that you can do a better format because you attract the eyes and the ears at the same time. And I just think that's the best way to learn. And really, if you think about it, that's actually how Jesus taught. When he taught parables, for example, he used examples visually that everybody could relate to. In this entire audience, when he would talk about a fisherman or a husbandman, those were analogies that they could visualize and really understand and grasp the point that he was making.

So being able to use the eye gait and the ear gait at the same time, there's no better way to teach than that. Yeah, that's a great point you made about how Christ taught. I mean, he taught the deepest truths you can know in the simplest way possible. So, yeah, I guess he set the tone and set the stage for how we're supposed to do it, you know? Amen. Amen.

Yeah. And Todd, to that point, your illustrations and your graphics, it really brings the Book of Daniel to life. Your book on Revelation, spiritual warfare, I mean them all, you do such a great job with your illustrations.

How do you believe this visual approach enhances the reader's connection to the scripture and especially for young people? Because I've stated this when we've had you on before, but my daughter, when you had your first book to come out, my daughter was seven years old. And I had your book in my car because I would keep it there when I would go out on my job. And during lunch break, I would pull it out and read it during lunch. And so whenever we would go somewhere, my daughter, she would immediately the first time she saw your book, she was drawn right to it and she would pick it up and read it.

And every time we would go out, she'd pick up that book and read it. And it's just amazing to me when I look at here's a seven year old, seven year old reading about prophecies and Revelation and things that a lot of adults won't even touch. So how do you explain your visual approach in the graphics and how you're bringing in that younger audience? Yeah, I think more people are visual learners than people might realize. And also, you know, we live in a digital generation where people are obviously looking at social media and all that stuff all the time and where attention spans are pretty short.

I mean, if you watch somebody swipe through an Instagram feed or whatever, you have a couple seconds to grab their attention. So some of it was that aspect. I wanted to grab people's attention. And some of it is honestly just I never knew I would be using my I'm an illustrator, an animation producer by trade.

I never realized God could use that the way he is or that he would use that. So the fact that I was a trained illustrator when I pitched a book concept to my publisher, they they liked it and they knew I could kind of pull it off. So they they allowed me to do this concept. You know, it's a it's an amazing partnership. Not everybody gets to do books that are that have full color illustrations in them.

I mean, it's more expensive than your typical black and white text only book. So I'm honored to be able to do this. But it's a partnership and it's really just I think the fact that people are visual learners and especially the charts. I work really hard at making the charts simple and easy to understand, but still get the main part of the content across in a quick visual glance.

So I spent quite a quite a bit of time making those accessible as well. So I think it helps people learn the content a little bit better and they can bounce back and forth. A lot of people are just drawn in by the art and then the next thing they know. Well, let me read this page. Well, let me read this chapter. And then before you know it, they've read the whole book. It's kind of a little bit of a fisherman's game as well.

Yeah. And to that point, our our mutual friend, Dr. David Reagan, who who has just blazed the trail for so many of us in the area of teaching Bible prophecy. But one of the things when I last spoke with him, he was telling me, he said, Brian, you may be noticing my books are getting shorter in length. He said, because people's attention spans now are so much shorter, it's hard to get people to sit and read something of any considerable amount of length.

And so, you know, he's made adjustments for that same thing. But as you say, we are in that that era now where information is everywhere and just trying to get people to sit still for a while and look at something is more and more of a challenge. But but as you say, your your books do such a great job because those illustrations really draw people in. So so, yeah, that's that's definitely great. Well, I just want to say, too, is just along that same line, the way you write. And again, I don't want to sound like a broken record or be overly redundant, but it's just I just love so much the way you write in your illustrations, because to be honest, I've personally been a lover of the Book of Daniel, you know, my early days in Christianity. And but every time I really read your book, I just I feel like I'm just like starting reading it again from from the beginning and just learning all over again, because it's just intriguing me to that extent, being able to see your illustrations and reading the content. And I just just such an awesome way to learn. And I've always been a visual learner anyway.

So maybe I'm biased in that respect. But I know that it's a lot of success comes from when you use that style of writing. But I want to just ask, too, you mentioned you talk about this ridiculously, quote unquote, the ridiculously lovable nonprofit. How does this character guide readers through the Book of Daniel and what makes him so endearing to your audience? Yeah, he that's a good question, because maybe some people haven't heard of this nonprofit guide series before and are wondering why it's even called that.

But the nonprofit, it's non-P-R-O-P-H-E-T. So he thinks he's a prophet. He looks like a prophet, but he gets prophecy wrong and he's a terrible businessman.

So he's a nonprofit in that respect as well. But he's just a character that I came up with. Again, again, God just kind of merged my animation and writing worlds.

In animation, you develop characters and you develop concepts. So the concept here is he looks like a prophet, but he's really the guy that gets it all wrong. So whatever he does, you do the opposite kind of thing. But he's a likable guy. He's not malicious or anything like that. He just kind of just doesn't understand prophecy or how to run a business. So there's little comic strips throughout the book and little vignettes that are comical spot illustrations of him saying certain things.

There's even a kid's book we did where the nonprofit has a pet frog named Plague and Plague actually understands prophecy better than the nonprofit does. So he's really just a tool to disarm the topic and to let people know, hey, it's OK to laugh. I mean, in all my books, I even poke fun at Christian culture in certain ways just to let people know we're real people.

We see it. We can laugh a little bit. Even if it's a deep theological topic, we can have some fun with it. So, you know, I believe Jesus when he was hanging out with his disciples, I believe he laughed a lot.

I believe he made them laugh a lot. Some of the parables he used were even so extreme. You know, the camel going through the eye of a needle, stuff like that. I mean, these are kind of comical things if you think about it. So I think it's OK to use some comedy and some lightheartedness in a heady topic.

And again, that just disarms it for more people to engage with the content. And that's the whole goal. Amen. That's excellent. That's excellent. And I just think, too, that that just relates to the culture and the audience that we are where we're at in our current culture.

That's just so relatable. And that's just another reason why, you know, you're at the top of my list for Christian authors, because I just think that's just so amazing. Wow. Thank you so much, man.

I appreciate it. And I love the fact that you speak about us laughing and having joy. I do know sometimes people, they seem as though when you're in a worship service that you're not supposed to have fun.

It's not supposed to be joyful. And one of the things that jumped out at me is I remember when I went to my first couple of Bible prophecy conferences. And we know that a lot of the stigma that surrounds those of us who teach Bible prophecy as well is all doom and gloom. And people think all that we're doing is talking and thinking about all the bad things that are going to happen. But when I went to this prophecy conference, you want to talk about the most joyous atmosphere. I mean, everybody there was just smiling and having fellowship and total strangers, people I never met.

And they're walking up hugging and and we're just laughing and having a great time. And the joy is because, for one, we know that Christ is coming back for us and we're going to be with him in eternity. And I just love the idea that, as you said, we're supposed to have joy. We're supposed to laugh and have fun. So for those of you out there, if you think that, well, we when it comes time to God, that we're supposed to just be all serious and never smile or laugh. And I think you win for a surprise because I truly believe in eternity. I think we're going to have permanent smiles on our faces.

I really believe the joy in our hearts is just going to be just something that we can't even measure with with the life that we're in on this side. Amen. Well put, man. I agree 100 percent.

Absolutely. I just want to say, too, just along that line that a lot of Christians who never study Bible prophecy, who don't understand really what the Bible says about what the future entails. You know, there's this concept that like eternity is going to be this long, perpetual forever and forever church service. And to be honest, that don't really sound all that fun.

No, it doesn't. Or they think you're going to be a fat baby playing harps on a cloud for eternity. Exactly. Doesn't sound fun either.

I think it's going to blow. You know, one of the reasons was a different topic. But when we're raptured, we get a glorified spiritual body. One of the reasons is because we have to have a body fit for heaven. If we went to heaven right now, we could not handle the sounds, the emotion, the sights. We would explode on impact. So we have to get a new body upgrade just to handle the beauty and the majesty of heaven, man. I can't wait.

Hey, man, I've used the example before that, you know, we would have to be changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye because otherwise our human bodies wouldn't be able to withstand the G forces. Yes. Amen. That's right.

100 percent. So, you know, we have all this joy and I'm and I'm glad we're speaking about this joy that we have to look forward to because for the believer, you know, and that's why I begin our podcast off by stating if you've never received Christ as savior to do so, because otherwise you're not going to have that joy for eternity. So it's so important. But before we get to that ultimate eternal joy, we still have to deal with some of the mess that is happening right here on earth and in our society.

But to your point, Todd, we can still have the joy even in the midst of it. So talk to us about, if you will, the fact that, Daniel, we tend to look at the prophecy a lot for those of us as prophecy teachers. But there are things in the Book of Daniel that actually talks about how to to deal with living boldly within a culture that that does not value God. What practical applications will readers take away from from dealing with the pressures when we look in our lives today and we're in a society in which people actually get angry with you and counsel you. If you simply say that a man cannot change himself into a woman or vice versa and people that are just diehard about what they perceive as a right to take the life of an unborn child, we just see culture going more and more away from God. What does this book share with us as as believers in Christ, how to deal with that? Yeah, that's a great question.

And, you know, we we need to be aware of the background of Daniel to really appreciate the stands that they took. All the other prophets. Well, not all of them. There's some post-exilic prophets, but many of them were before the exile. They were warning Israel and Judah to turn back to God so they wouldn't be taken captive. And then the northern kingdom was attacked by Syria. And then Daniel, the southern kingdom of Judah, was attacked by Babylon. And there's three waves of captives that were taken out of their homeland into a pagan land.

So we're seeing our land kind of become pagan around us. Daniel and his friends were literally taken to a pagan land and indoctrinated them and even changed their names. You know, they tried to change Daniel's name to a pagan name and his three friends name to a pagan name.

But here's the thing. Daniel, you find him in Daniel chapter one. He and his friends, he decided what standards they were going to follow and what stands they were going to take. So you see this test right out of the gate in chapter one where they they didn't want to eat the food that had been sacrificed to idols or that weren't prepared in a kosher way. You know, Daniel was Jewish, living according to the law and that kind of thing. So he took a stand and he did it very whimsically.

He didn't stand up and be a jerk about it. He just simply stated his case and asked if they could eat vegetables instead of the meat that was sacrificed. And God blessed them for it.

Then as you move through the narrative, I won't go through each of them, but people are familiar with the fiery furnace and then later the lion's den. Over and over again, Daniel and his friends took a stand that was against the culture. They didn't bow to the statue that the entire rest of the culture bowed to because it was not honoring to God. So, first of all, I think it encourages us to predecide what we're going to live for, what our priorities and what our standards are going to be. Then it encourages us to have the courage to stand even if nobody else is. And it shows you that, again, God's sovereignty shines through. Daniel, you know, I've heard it said Daniel wasn't in the lion's den, the lions were in Daniel's den because Daniel had God on his side.

It's the same thing. You know, we need to be like Job where we say, even if he kills me, I'm still going to trust him. But we also need to expect God to show up and protect us and honor our commitments to him. But ultimately leaving the results to him, just like Jesus said, not my will but yours be done. But we need to stand. We need to speak the truth and love in this culture today. I mean, now more than ever, we need to understand the practical application of the Book of Daniel as well as the prophecies of Daniel.

I think the Book of Daniel, for both of those reasons, is more relevant now than it's ever been before. Yeah, absolutely. I was just reading earlier today a case in which a woman for trying to remember which sport it was. I can't remember.

I think it was one of the billiard sports. But she she walked out of a tournament because they were trying to have a man compete against her. And she said, no, she's not going to do it because she said he has an unfair advantage. But, you know, this man claims to be a woman.

And so we need people who are bold in that way to to stand up against. And as you said, Todd, not not bow to things just like Daniel and his friends did back during that time in pagan Babylon. So, Todd, share with us as we wrap things up. How can the listeners get a copy of this book, The Non-Prophet's Guide to the Book of Daniel? You bet they could go to ToddHampson.com and there's links to a bunch of the main places that the books are sold. But they're pretty much anywhere online where you can buy books. You should be able to get a copy of one.

They can pretty much find it anywhere. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us these past two weeks has been such a blessing. And I would like for you, if you will, Todd, to to close us out, if you would be willing to pray for the nation of Israel, for the Jews, for the people that are going through this conflict that is happening over there right now, if you would pray for those people. Before you do that, though, Doc, do you have any final words to Todd before we close out for this week?

No, I would just like to say I thoroughly enjoyed our two weeks with Todd and I just love your ministry and everything that you do. And hopefully maybe when you reschedule that trip to Israel, I might be able to be on board with that. Because hopefully it will happen. Maybe not this year, but maybe next year or at some point in the future, everything will settle down and in such a way that we can make that happen. So I would I would definitely look forward to that.

Awesome. Yeah, we'll let you know. And it's yeah, it's weird now where we're kind of just leave it in the Lord's hand and see what happens. But that's the beauty of living the Christian life is every day is an adventure. But you know that you're following the right the right one who has the right path and you have nothing to worry about.

And it's an exciting ride. We'll join him in that. Amen. Amen. Absolutely.

All right. Well, thank you, Todd. And thank you, listeners, for tuning in. And Todd, if you will close us out with a prayer for Israel.

You bet. Oh, Lord, we just come to you right now. God, as we record this, there's still hostages being held.

There's still anti-Semitism rising all around the world. That's just demonic in nature. Lord, we pray against the enemy. We pray for righteousness to prevail. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We pray for the protection of those hostages, the protection of the soldiers and, of course, the protection of innocent lives on both sides. Lord, we just I'm thankful for how careful Israel's being in terms of doing what they got to do, but also trying to minimize the loss of life on the other side, even though they're their enemies. God, I pray that that will continue.

And I just pray you give them favor to to cause this to end quickly. Lord, we know that this has prophetic implications as well and that you're setting the stage for all the things that you have said are to come, including Ezekiel 38 and all the end time events with that are going to happen in Israel. It's amazing, Lord, how all eyes are on Israel once again, because it is the center of your prophetic activity, Lord. And as Brian just alluded to, Lord, I just pray for the peace and the safety and the protection of Israel and that you watch over them, that you guard Israel and that you provide for them in an amazing way. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you for tuning in to Discerning the Times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the Kingdom of God. Discerning the Times is presented by Blessings to Israel.