Prophecy of Daniel

Introduction

Daniel is among the prophets of God and was greatly used by God in the Old Testament books of the bible. According to Baldwin Joyce, Daniel is an author of the historical biblical events backed by the biblical and extra biblical evidences from as the author. Baldwin also refers Daniel to a person of dates and prophecies of the book that are true till today. Baldwin who is seen as a true conservative in the way she approaches the book of Daniel in her commentaries, she is also seen as a personality that does hold the high opinion on the scripture and she also asserts that God is a sovereign purpose and has the control of all the history.  According to Baldwin, the book of Daniel is however categorized in parts but  not in its generalness because it is generally acknowledged to contain full-blown apocalyptic, but also because scholars are all but the unanimous in the judging that chapters 7-12 in which Daniel purports to write in the first person and she refers them to as pseudepigraphical. She adds that the ground of such certainty is in the last analysis the content of those chapters which seem to foretell future stages of world history, and in particular chapter 11. These disclosures of the future are regularly classified as examples of history written up as if it was a prophecy, and evidence in other ancient literatures is related to this kind of information. She asserts that If such a prophecy is to be allowed to carry conviction it must be of necessity be put into the mouth of someone known to have lived at an earlier days stage in history, and therefore it is essentially pseudepigraphical. It follows that if this is the genre of Daniel 7-12 these chapters must be pseudonymous.

This has greatly helped in the pointing out of the issues that differ with the theory and makes them to come to an understanding of Daniels book. Baldwin expalins that the first two chapters of the book seem to have belonged to the earlier days of the king of Babylon, king Nabuchednezzer campaigns with the evidence of the last date of those days. The visions of prophet Daniel emerges from chapters seven to twelve with their distinct outline of future prophesies and their special interest in the Greek period which focuses in chapter eleven on the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. Daniel in his spiritual inspirational writings reveals such detailed knowledge of the future that reckon with the visions prophetic seems too many inconceivable. According to John Goldingay it is not so much that God could not but that he would not give such detailed information in advance. This is where the argument comes in that most of chapter 11, and by implication the other visions of future epochs that originated in the second century, and in that part of it which is dealt with in most detailed form namely the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. According to Baldwin. The author had lived through the events he presented as prophecies of that reign. It follows that only a very small part of the visions relate to the future as it looked from the writer’s standpoint. In reality he was summing up to around three hundred and fifty years of history in the form of a prophecy about 165 BC, and was making a genuine prophecy. In those verses he prophesied the way in which king Antiochus would meet his end (Charles, 1963).The author ‘Daniel’ has been proved to be a very second-rate prophet, however, because even that very short section of prophecy was proved by history to be incorrect! For example, the Antiochus did not die in the manner predicted. Moreover the author made an even bigger mistake in implying that God would intervene in the immediate future by bringing history to an end. His third weak area was his knowledge of history. Many inaccuracies are alleged, some of them serious, but especially his conviction that there was a separate Median kingdom before that of the Persians. Now the book itself does not say that this was the author’s interpretation of the four eras of chapters 2 and 7 respectively.

From the view of Baldwin, some scholars have accepted the vaticinium ex eventu theory, but for those who do not believe explicitly mention it and go further in to the lengths to repudiate this notion that pseudonomity involved in is in any way fraudulent, or at least they argue that circumstances made it inevitable. Some thought that the superiority of the Law made the revival of prophecy in the second century BC impossibility and Eva Oswald blamed the closure of the canon of revelation for the borrowing of the canonical name. She saw two extra advantages of the pseudonym: added respect for the writing and possibly a means of saving the author from political danger. H. H. Rowley was of the opinion that pseudonymity could be recognized by the reader of the time Austerely envisaged a long period of oral tradition preceding the written form of the work, which was attributed to the supposed initiator of the tradition while Russell contended that the writer thought of himself as an extension of the personality of the historic personage under whose name he wrote.28 Recently Klaus Koch has stated his position: ‘association with a tradition confers legitimacy’ and ‘since what is involved is not the conscious use of an inaccurate name, the designation “pseudonymous” should be used only with reservations. This reluctance to make use of the word ‘pseudonymous’ is significant. John Goldingay endeavors to show that pseudonymity is not incompatible with inspiration,30 and Richard Baulkham argues that ‘Pseudonymity is... a device expressing the apocalyptist’s consciousness that the age of prophecy has passed: not in the sense that he fraudulently wishes to pass off his work as belonging to the age of prophecy, but in the sense that he thereby acknowledges his work to be mere interpretation of the revelation given in the prophetic age.’31 The use of vaticinia ex eventu was, according to this writer, in the interests of giving his contemporaries a relevant exposition of old prophecies (Moses Stuart, 1895).

Daniel in the biblical book is said to have prophesized a lot about the future of the people living in Babylon. From the biblical view of understanding, God always used a vessel to reach his people and will for ever use them whenever they are to communicate to his people. According to the biblical distribution of the ages and stones, god always appointed somebody that will stand right before and lead the information He had for his people. To the Babylonian people, God used His prophet Daniel to reach them on the direction or the information. Daniel as used of God in the bible, he had several dreams and visions. First, he tells of the vision that he saw at night and these were the four winds from the heaven that were striving upon a certain great sea. According to the interpretations given, the four winds did indicate the directions and the four kingdoms that were existing before the coming of the messiah Jesus Christ. The interpretations state that the great sea was chummed up and its waters had no rest at all. This indicated the lack of peace that was going to dwell among the territories that existed in those days before the coming of the Messiah. Therefore all the territories would suffer from the consequences Daniel prophesied if at all they were not going to put their houses in order. According to those days, the great sea was the Meditaterenian Sea as known in those days. The beasts’ seen by the prophet of God Daniel that were coming from the sea were not but the sea animals rather land animals. They are said by the prophet that they represented the four kingdoms due to their diverse nature. Each of the four beasts had its own shape and physical appearance; none resembled the other giving a clear implication of the difference or the diversity of the world in nature. According to the author, prophet of God Daniel reiterates that the first animal was of the shape of the lion due to its agile nature, strong and courageous. The strange thing about the physical appearance of this lion is that it had eagles wings that could make it fly to various places due to the swiftness it got from the availability of the wings on the body. From the interpretation of this prophecy, it meant that the lion was the king of Babylon king Nebuchadnezzar. The implication of wings showed how swift and crude the king of Babylon king Nebuchadnezzar was. Later on, the prophet explains that the lion would wings which according to the interpretation meant that in the future king Nebuchadnezzar would lose his mind because of pride. Biblically, it is God who blessed the king of Babylon with a better and sober mind, but later on when the kings human nature makes him proud and he forget about the God that gave him a blessed memory. Naturally and biblically God hates the pride and he reduces them to nothing for the glory of his heavenly kingdom. The prophet asserts that in future the king of Babylon would lose his mind which is the Lords strategy to disgrace the proud king of Babylon. The removal of the wings also implied that the flying animal would never fly to any place and the removal of wings would make him to stand on his two feet like a man. This therefore means that Nebuchadnezzar was no longer going to behave like a beast but come back a normal human nature of living. According to the prophecy of Daniel in chapter 2, the first beast among the four that he has seen in the dreams was a representative to the Babylonian empire of king Nebuchadnezzar where he is referred to as the head of the gold. The second beast was in the form of a bear, strong in stature although slower than a lion kin its response to actions. By its nature of strength, it conquers by the brute strength although not with the majesty of the lion. According to Prophet Daniel, it is seen to rise up itself to one side which in the biblical old state describes Persia that was much stronger in those days. In this context, the prophet Daniel refers the animal to the Persian territory and its leader Cyrus the Persian and the prophet there fore describes him as stronger than king Darius of Mede. The prophet describes this beast as one with three ribs in his mouth between his teeth and ate much, the three bones between its teeth in this context signifies the conquest of the three provinces of Babylon in the near future. The three provinces were, Babylon, Lydia and Egypt. The beast presents Medo who was the median king in those days and represented by the chest of silver in the book of the Daniel in chapter 2.  The forth beast that the prophet saw in his dreams was the beast with two legs of iron and its feet and toes were of the potter clay. The image of the seen beast was terrifying and powerful and characterized by the devouring and breaking anything left under its feet. The forth beast is seen to be different from the other entire four initial beast due to the presence of the ten horns on its head. This picture is interpreted as the Roman Empire the consisted of the ten iron feet and the ten horns which is the empire that signifies the antichrist. According to the author who is Prophet Daniel, these things are to happen or rather appear in the later days of the kingdoms concerned. Prophet Daniel in his prophesy too sees through his dreams a white horse and on its back was the bow and there a crown was given to it and straight he was seen launching attacks conquering and to conquer (Rev 6:2 NIV). Further interpretation reveal that that the ten horns represented the kings that were later to emerge from the fourth beast which represented the ten roman empires of today. The prophet also sees the emergence of the little horn, although small literally it later on grows and becomes the greatest of all and this according o the prophet was the anti Christ. Among the ten horns, the three horns will be later on be plucked up from their roots implying to the three kings that will be will be removed from their thrones.  It is in this hones that the mouth that spoke boastfully is seen to have depicted the coming of Jesus. According to the prophets prophecy, the kings will later on be stripped off their authority and will not be allowed to die but live for a while.

In his dream, Daniel the prophet of God also saw during the night vision saw the son of man coming in the clouds from the heavens. This signified the way Jesus was going to come on the earth “HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS; AND EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM”. Rev 1:7, he will be given authority and the powers that every man and living things should serve and worship, “THE LORD GOD SHALL GIVE UNTO HIM (Jesus) THE THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID, Luke 1:32; I SHALL GIVE THEE...THE UTTERMOST PARTS OF THE EARTH FOR THY POSSESSION, psalms 2:8”. He is seen in the prophecy as the only king that will bring one kingdom with Him. The prophesy sees the antichrist speaking a lot of blasphemy against God and later on ware him out through oppressions which meant the later persecution of the Christians and even the killings. The antichrist is also seen by the prophet of God Daniel as one who in the later will try to change the set calendar or the order of things for instance the dating of the calendar of the lord and the antichrist is therefore seen to work against its heavenly fulfillment of the seven feats by God. In the prophets prophesy, Daniel the prophet of God sees the antichrist trying to change the laws of the lord throughout the entire kingdom of God (Daniel 11, Pp. 184-185).

In his night vision, the prophet of the Lord also sees the return of the son of man coming through the cloud coming the ancient days. His mission will be to destroy the powers of the antichrist on earth and He will end it forever.  Despite all these, the prophet of God prophesizes on the judgment of the nations because he says what God has decreed will always come to take place and in this context the prophet of God asserts in his night vision that Jesus will be the judge of the court of sinners in the later days. “AND TEN THOUSAND TIMES TEN THOUSAND STOOD BEFORE HIM. THE JUDGMENT WAS SET, AND THE BOOKS WERE OPENED. FOR THE FATHER JUDGETH NO MAN, BUT HATH COMMITTED ALL JUDGMENT UNTO THE SON” and only the saints will be exempted from the judgment on the return of Jesus at Armageddon. The saints shall therefore take the kingdom and posses it forever. They shall also take over the dominion and the greatness and those that belong to the lord shall have it.  In his vision for the later, the prophet describes Jesus as one coming in a white garment which simply showed how holly the son of man was, his hair was described by the prophet by pure wool and the throne that he had was like a fiery flame that biblically indicates judgment. His wheel is described as the burning flame and the fiery stream came forth from before him.  24 "Seventy `sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

In conclusion, the book of the prophet Daniels makes us to Know and understand the following: first from the issuing of the decree in the restoration and the rebuilding of  Jerusalem until the time the Anointed one, the ruler, who comes, and there will be seven `sevens,' and sixty-two `sevens.' It will be therefore rebuilt with the streets and a trench, but only in the times of trouble.  After sixty-two sevens, the Anointed One will then be disconnected from man and will have nothing. The people that belong to the  ruler who will come will come to destroy the city and even the sanctuary. The end is seen to come like a flood: there will be and the War will continue until the end of the later times, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven. In the middle, the `seven' will he put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing church or the temple in the earlier days, he will bring an abomination to the end that has been causing desolation.