Two Dads and Daniel 2

Read the stories of two courageous men who staked career and even life on Bible prophecy.

A recent conversation among some of us involved with ADVENTISTS AFFIRM turned to the European Community, the Maastricht treaty, and Daniel 2. We asked each other, should not Seventh-day Adventists be telling the world that Daniel 2 will be fulfilled again in Europe as it has been so often in the past? Evidence of this repeated fulfillment builds faith in the increasingly significant prophecies of Daniel 7, 8, and 9.

“Whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another” (Dan 2:43).

The Maastricht treaty is bound to fail! True, Revelation 17:17 shows that not long from now the nations will join with the beast in persecuting God’s people; but according to the prophecy of Daniel 2, they will never unite politically. Either Maastricht will fail of being approved unanimously as required, or it will be so modified as to lose its intended function, or it will perish through neglect. But neither it nor any other treaty will create a united Europe. Daniel 2 says today as it has said so many times before, “They shall not cleave one to another.” The Europe of today will not unite!

Well, as we were talking like this among ourselves, I mentioned that in 1940, right after Dunkirk and the conquest of France, when Hitler was at a pinnacle of his power and America hadn’t yet declared war, timid brethren warned my Dad to go easy on Daniel 2 in the Signs of the Times, which he edited. The timid brethren warned ominously that Adventists might have to learn that they hadn’t understood the prophecy correctly.

But my Dad, Arthur S. Maxwell, stalwartly refused to be intimidated. Boldly, he dedicated the entire July 2, 1940 issue of his Signs of the Times to the prophecy of Daniel 2. More than this, he buoyantly urged his readers to hold on to their copies of the issue until the war was over, so they could see for themselves that Bible prophecies are dependable.

When I finished telling about my Dad and Daniel 2, Gerhard Hasel spoke up to tell an exciting story from the other side of the battle lines, a story about his Dad and Daniel 2. I’ll first tell you what Dr. Hasel said and then I’ll include a portion of the Signs article. I suspect they both will make you tingle.

Hasel’s Story about His Dad and Daniel 2.
Dr. Hasel said that his Dad, like mine, was a minister; but whereas Elder Maxwell, my Dad, was an Englishman living in America, Elder Franz Hasel, his Dad, was a German, inducted into the German army. Hitler made no provision for conscientious objectors, but in view of his office skills as a minister, Elder Hasel was mostly assigned to non-combat duty. Besides, he was blessed with a superior officer who responded favorably to his request to work on Sunday instead of Sabbath.

Secretly, Elder Hasel cherished a well-worn printed picture of the Daniel 2 image. When he felt safe to do so, he would take it out and look at it, renewing his faith in Bible prophecy and reassuring himself that the Nazi armies would not win the war. Alarmingly, at some point during the war an officer came through who declared Elder Hasel a rebel for refusing to work on Sabbath and sentenced him to be shot to death as soon as Germany would win the war. Now Elder Hasel had a very personal reason for trusting the Daniel 2 prophecy that “they shall not cleave one to another.”

An officer came through who declared Elder Hasel a rebel for refusing to work on Sabbath and sentenced him to be shot to death as soon as Germany would win the war.

The war dragged on; but as the German army began suffering reverses, yet well before Hitler’s defeat seemed inevitable to German leadership, Elder Hasel’s superior officer suddenly asked one evening, “Hasel, how do you think the war is going to come out?”

Elder Hasel was startled! If he told the officer what he confidently believed, he feared being shot at once. Collecting his wits, he asked, “Is this an official question, sir, or a private one?” He knew that answering a “private” question could never legally be held against a soldier.

When the officer assured him that it was a private question, Elder Hasel gave him a Bible study on Daniel 2, showing him his secret picture and concluding that Hitler, like other ambitious conquerors before him, would certainly fail in his attempt to unite Europe. Hitler would lose the war.

When Hasel was through, the officer asked him to give the same information to two other key officers the next night.

Next night Hasel was indeed anxious, but when the officers insisted that the occasion was a “private” one and would never be used against him, he repeated his study of Daniel 2. One of the officers was a historian. As Hasel surveyed the four empires and came down through European history, this officer would nod and endorse what he was saying.

The meeting over, the officers assured Hasel that the discussion was so absolutely “private” that officially it had never taken place. Nothing more was said to Hasel, but he began to notice that the officers were discreetly stockpiling fuel (which was becoming critically scarce), so that when the propitious moment arrived, they could make their escape.

Thus it was that Elder Hasel was not shot at the end of the war but found himself alive and safe as a prisoner of war. Delighted, he was eager to hurry home to see if any members of his family and of his former congregation were still alive. But processing of the prisoners before their release proved so slow he feared it could take months.

Then God’s providence intervened again.

An American officer noticed on Hasel’s papers that he had been sentenced to be shot as soon as the war was over. “What is this all about?” he asked.

“You wouldn’t understand, sir,” Hasel replied.

“I’ll try to understand. You must tell me.”

When Hasel explained that he had been pronounced a rebel because he asked to keep the Sabbath, the American officer was deeply moved.

“I am a Jew,” he said, “in the free American army, yet I have not shown the courage you have shown in keeping the Sabbath.”

Learning that Hasel was a minister, the officer determined to get him home as rapidly as possible. He applied an Allied rule that allowed farmers to be released immediately. “Do you know how to farm?” he asked Hasel hopefully.

“Yes, sir. I grew up on a farm.”

At once the officer completed Hasel’s papers, writing on them that Hasel was being released so he could “work in the vineyard of the Lord.”

This great story about Elder Hasel comes from the German side of the lines. Now we turn to the Arthur S. Maxwell editorial, written in the United States, on the Allied side.

You must remember that in the summer of 1940 Hitler was at the peak of his power. He had absorbed Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Norway, had allied himself with Mussolini of Italy, and had swept over Poland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and most of France. Spain and Portugal, it seemed, he could pick up at his convenience. Only Britain stood seriously in his way, and he might be expected to invade her at any moment. The United States would not enter the conflict until a year and a half later. Some Seventh-day Adventist leaders were rethinking Daniel 2 and seriously questioning whether we had the right interpretation. Elder Maxwell, however, was not among the doubting ones.

Maxwell’s article in Signs of the Times, July 2, 1940.

Many are beginning to ask questions and to entertain doubts [the article began]. Our interpretation [i.e., the usual SDA interpretation given in Signs of the Times] is under fire. People are saying to us: “Look at what is happening in Europe today. This new Napoleon [Adolph Hitler] is so strong that no one can stop him. He is bound to spread his dominion over the whole Continent [of Europe]. What are you going to say now?”

To which Elder Maxwell responded: We are going to say exactly what we have said in the past. We refuse to retract one jot or one tittle. We believe that the prophecy in question is not only the most remarkable and the most significant to be found in all the Scriptures, but that it is absolutely authentic and reliable. . . .

This prophecy is the only one in the Bible to which the two words “certain” and “sure” are both attached. If for no other reason, with these two seals upon it we can surely trust it with complete confidence. It cannot fail. . . .

All through the fifteen centuries that have elapsed since the breakup of the Roman Empire, despite the most desperate and determined efforts to bind these divisions [i.e., nations] together into one great whole again, the task has been found impossible.

Boundaries have changed, of course; but the prophecy said nothing about boundaries, or about the depredations of one nation upon another. Some nations might expand and others shrink. Some might be eliminated altogether—and were. The strong might profit at the expense of the weak. The fragments of iron might penetrate the helpless clay. But the clay would remain, defying the power of the iron to weld itself together again.

Some Seventh-day Adventist leaders were rethinking Daniel 2 and seriously questioning whether we had the right interpretation.

Seen in the light of history, illuminated by the glow of a thousand battlefields, where men by millions have struggled to defeat the divine purpose, the ancient dictum “THEY SHALL NOT CLEAVE ONE TO ANOTHER,” is seen to be one of the greatest prophetic utterances of all time.

It is amazing how many schemes have been laid to unite the nations of Europe. Men have tried treaties until almost every nation was pledged in some way to every other nation. They have tried leagues until it seemed at last that peaceful unity was about to be achieved. They have tried intermarriage until every ruling dynasty became related to every other dynasty and it was considered unethical for one of royal blood to wed outside this charmed circle. Yet every plan has failed. Every bond, durable as it seemed when made, has snapped under the strain of seething human emotions. Always, in all these plans, while there has been in them “of the strength of the iron,” there has inevitably appeared the disastrous weakness of the clay. . . .

Resentful of the seemingly petty differences of custom and language, angered by aggravating trade barriers, they have sworn to sweep them away once and for all, and so build afresh one undivided empire.

Yet they have failed. Logical as their purpose, grim as their determination, fiery as their zeal, they have found the task beyond them.

Sometimes they have come within sight of success. Just one more victory, or one more year of planning, and their ambition might have been achieved. But it was not to be. Every time, in some strange and unexpected way, they have been defeated.

[Charlemagne, Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon, and Kaiser Wilhelm all tried to unite Europe, all came apparently close to success, and all failed.]

Thus has it happened in the past. Thus will it happen again. . . .

Mark this well. Events may for a time seem to go absolutely contrary to the course the prophecy would indicate. In every time of totalitarian ascendancy there has been a period when it must have seemed to the onlookers as though all hope was lost. . . .

Imagine yourself living in those war-cursed years from 1800 to 1812, or even till 1815, when the name of Napoleon struck terror to the hearts of men throughout Europe. Imagine news reaching you that nation after nation had been invaded and the conqueror’s relatives had been placed on every vacated throne. Ask yourself what you would have thought then about the fulfillment of Daniel 2.

Yes indeed, for eight years or more, in those days, the prophecy might well have seemed in jeopardy. Yet it was not. After the storm had passed and the weapons of war had been laid down, the word of God was seen to be more firmly established than ever.

So it will be in our day. . . .

“Heaven and earth shall pass away,” He says to us, “but My words shall not pass away.” Mark 13:31. . . .
“THEY SHALL NOT CLEAVE ONE TO ANOTHER.”

The divisions of the Roman Empire will remain until the very end, for it is “in the days of these kings that the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, . . .”

Wonderful prophecy! Like a mighty beacon it shines across the centuries, illuminating the greatest events of time with light from heaven. Glittering on the gold of Babylon, shimmering on the silver of Medo-Persia, glinting on the brass of Greece, shining on the iron of confusion, lifts up the struggles and conflicts of men into another world, it glows at last upon the face of the King of kings as He comes back to the earth in glory. For He is the stone that strikes the image and breaks in pieces “the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold.” His is the kingdom which “shall consume all these kingdoms, and . . . shall stand forever.”

“The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”

The article as printed here includes a few minor editorial changes as they appeared the following year in Arthur S. Maxwell, Great Prophecies for Our Time. A note in Great Prophecies states that “between May 19, 1920 and May 19, 1939 no fewer than 4,568 ‘treaties and international engagements’ were submitted for registration with the League of Nations.”