Daniel 2

3 December 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Last week my niece Pam Gill wrote me asking if I could write about Daniel 2. Unquestionably Daniel 2 is one of the major chapters of the Bible. It is the the corner stone of all eschatology that everything from 400 BC clear through the end of the Bible in Revelation 22 is built upon. I don't know how concise I can be in getting the basics in one letter but I will try. Gomen nasai if this letter is 10 pages long, and if it gets boring you can delete it and go get some coffee.

The book of Daniel is unique in scripture. Daniel was a young Jewish boy who was captured in Jerusalem and taken to Babylon in the first captivity. Because of his exceptional gifts he was chosen to be sent to a special college for training to be one of the king's wise men. He was in the inner core of the palace for the period of four kings.

Nebuchadnezzar had had a dream and called his wise men to explain it to him. He couldn't remember what the dream was, and was furious with his wise men because they couldn't tell him the dream and the interpretation. He ordered all of them executed, which would have also included Daniel. Daniel pleaded, “Let me have a crack at it”; and in answer to prayer the Lord revealed the dream to Daniel. When Daniel explained the dream and interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar, the king fell down to worship Daniel. This gives undeniable validity to the accuracy of this prophecy.

Nebuchadnezzar saw a dream of a statue with a head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron and feet of a mixture of iron and clay. Then a little stone that was cut without hands struck the statue on it toes shattering everything and became a great mountain that filled the whole earth. The interpretation was that there would be four successive kingdoms, and “in the days of these kings (the ten toes) the God of heaven would set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed” (verse 44). The first kingdom was Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon), and the last Kingdom obviously is the time when Jesus comes back to set up His menial reign of Christ and beyond (Rev. 19-22). The first three kingdoms of the gold, silver, and brass, are right straight forward. Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, “Thou art the head of gold” (Babylon) (verse 38). The next one would be silver (Media-Persia), and the following one, brass, was obviously Greece (Alexander the Great). But the fourth kingdom (iron) is not so clear. The traditional interpretation is that the fourth kingdom (iron) is the Roman Empire and the ten toes of the feet that get smashed by the little stone (Jesus) is the revived Roman Empire. Four decades ago everyone confidently said that this is the European Union, and we were all waiting until it came to ten; then the anti-Christ would make his appearance. But then the EU went to twenty eight. Today I am not so sure. I feel very strongly that anyone who dogmatically says he understands exactly who the fourth kingdom is demonstrates that he really doesn't understand anything at all.

In recent years several scholars have come up with a Middle East position. Personally, I feel Joel Richardson is the closest. Richardson has set forward some highly radical views. He has some excellent arguments; much of which I feel he is right on. But there are some holes in his position that are troubling. Looking at the big picture as for the occupation of Israel and the Middle East; the four successive major kingdoms are Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome. No question that the Roman Empire was the dominant kingdom at the time of Christ. But if we take the literal position that the day “God will set up a Kingdom that shall never be destroyed” is the menial reign of Christ we have to accept that there is an enormous gap between the first century and now.

Daniel 9:24 give a very significant statement when it says, “70 weeks are determined upon thy people and thy holy city.” To try to interpret end time prophecy on anything other than Israel and Jerusalem is to engage in foundationless, unbiblical, speculation. There is absolutely no warranty to suggest that the lion is England, the eagle is America, and the bear is Russia. Accepting that Israel is God's time clock we see in Daniel's 70 weeks the Bible predicted to the day that Jesus would present Himself to Israel as her Messiah. When Israel's Messiah was cut off the clock stopped, and God started another clock that is called the time of the gentiles (Lk. 21:24). This has been running for the past 2, 000 years where God has opened the door to all nations and whosoever will may be saved. But when that time is full God's Israeli clock will start ticking again and that will be a specific period of seven years that is left. Then Jesus will come to set up His Kingdom.

The problem with the legs of iron in Nebuchadnezzar statue is that we have to deal with the connection of the legs with the feet. Very clearly the feet with the ten toes is the end time kingdom. Daniel 2 is the corner stone and the rest of Daniel is the further explanation. To go into any serious discussion of the legs of iron would take an in depth study of the entire book of Daniel. This would require a very large book, and I can't cover this in one short letter. But let me mention just the highlights.

Daniel had four visions, two of which were dreams – chapter 2, 7, 8, and 10-12. Chapter 7 is a further explanation of chapter 2, and 8 is tied to 10-12. (10 to 12 are all one vision). Chapter 7 and 8 are two visions separated by three years, but 8 is a more detailed explanation of 7. Putting them all together is one piece of fabric.

The identification of the first three kingdoms of Daniel 2 are perfectly clear. But when we come to the legs of iron we have a very blurred transition from Alexander to the anti-Christ. Chapters 7, 8, and 11 give more detail about the anti-Christ than any other portion of scripture. Jesus mentions Daniel and points to the abomination of desolation (Dan:11:31; 12: 11) as one of the most significant end time events (Mt. 24:15; Mk. 13:14).

For centuries Bible scholars have taken the western position of Rome and the revived Roman Empire; and have speculated the the anti-Christ would be the head. Scholars have identified the anti-Christ as anyone from a Jew to the Pope to Barack Obama. Joel Richardson has come up with a very compelling position that the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar's statue is not the EU but an Islamic caliphate of ten countries and the anti-Christ is the Islamic mahdi (twelfth Inman).

Had you asked me to explain Daniel 2 five years ago I could have laid it out in a very clear presentation. Today I have no idea what it means. I believe I know a great deal more about Daniel today than I did 40 years ago, but I am increasingly convinced that spiritual truth is not as black and white as we wished. There is a lot in scripture that just doesn't make sense, and I am willing to put Daniel 2 in that category. But on one point I will be absolutely dogmatic; that is, in heaven the Lord will explain all this to us and we will agree He was 100% correct. I am absolutely sure that God's prophecy of the end time stared out with Babylon and will culminate in Jesus being Lord and King over all the earth. But the details of transition in the legs of iron is not as clear as I wish. Looking at the world situation today it is difficult to imagine that we have much time left on the clock. The stage is being rapidly set and if we ever had a time to look up it is today. Let's let it all hang out for Jesus.

Gambarimasho, bill