I just want to close with this and time is far spent and I thank you for your patience today. Revelation, the book was written in 174 and has become attached to the book of Revelation as a New Testament prophecy. Now, let me spend just a moment helping you with this. Daniel is writing about a time period that starts around 600 BC and ends somewhere around 483 BC. 600 to 480, about 120 years. That's the time period that Daniel is writing about. That's the time period that Daniel is writing about. However, the Book of Daniel is actually written,
not during his lifetime, but subsequent to his lifetime. What we do know from literary science and analysis is that the Book of Daniel is written around 174 BC. Now, it's written in 174 BC, get where I'm going, beloved, but it was written about a time period
that was about 200 years earlier. So that would be almost like me today, 2024, writing about Martin Luther King, 1968. That would have been 60 years ago. So if in my book, I say that Martin Luther King predicted that in 40 years, there would be a black president,
but I'm writing that in 2024, that's not a compelling prophecy or prediction because I am writing what I'm writing as a prediction at a time when the prediction has already come to pass. So if I write that in 1968, Martin Luther King predicted that we would have a black president in 40 years,
but I'm writing that in 2024, well in 2008, we already had a black president. So I'm writing about something being in the future that has already taken place.
Woo!
Do you get what I'm saying? Let me say that again. So I would be guilty of writing and casting something as a prophecy or a prediction when in reality, when I'm writing it, what I'm saying is a prediction has already come to pass.
So it really questions whether or not that was a prophecy or prediction, because what I'm saying is a prediction has already taken place by the time that I'm writing it down. You understand what I'm saying? Now, that is similar, because even though the book of Daniel is writing about 600 to 480 BC and having all these predictions about a Greek empire and a Seleucid empire and a Ptolemaic empire and a Persian empire. By 174, all of those empires had already risen and fallen.
They had already taken place. So by the time that the book is written, even though it's writing about an earlier era, the events and the predictions and the prophecies that's being written in 174. All of those prophecies, it's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. All of those prophecies have already taken place. Now, that creates a bit of a dilemma. And it creates a bit of a dilemma
for the church because the church now has the obligation, the responsibility of having to explain, well, if the book of Daniel was written about the year 600, but it was written in 174, when all of the things that it was writing about have already taken place, then what is the real value of the book?
Since those are obviously predictions that had already come to pass by the time that the book was written. And the response has been, well, those predictions were in about 600 BC. Those predictions are about the end of the world, which is to come in the future. And beloved, and again, I thank you for your patience and I won't take up much more of your time, but beloved. So understand that from a New Testament perspective, no longer is
the book of Daniel looking at the past and predictions that had already taken place. The New Testament church has opted to take the book of Daniel and provide an interpretation, a commentary on the predictions of Daniel and those, and that commentary is the book of Revelation. So the book of Revelation in the New Testament is a commentary of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament,
operating under the assumption that the predictions and the dreams and the visions that are talked about in the book of Daniel is not that 400 year period between the Old Testament and the New Testament, but it's about the end of the world that is to come in the future.
And so that statue and the four horsemen and the visions and the tree and the acknowledgement of God. So libraries of books have been produced in bringing together Daniel with the book of Revelation. When in reality, from a literary point of view, the book of Revelation is an attempt to be a commentary
on the book of Daniel. The assumption being that the Book of Daniel ain't about Daniel, it's not about the Persians, the Medes, Alexander the Great, and the Romans. No, it's about the end of the world. It's about the Battle of Armageddon.
It's about this final showdown between good and evil. It's about the Son of Man. That's why some of the language and the vocabulary in Revelation reflects the book of Daniel, because there is a Babylon in Revelation. There is the great oar in Revelation. There are the four horsemen, which is a loss of covenant in Revelation that is reflective of the loss of covenant
in the book of Daniel. I could go on and on and on in this particular regard, but I think you get the gist of what it is that I am attempting to say. Listen, I want to thank you for your time. gone over time today, but I wanted to give you as comprehensive an explanation of the book of Daniel, both in terms of narrative, but also in terms of meaning. I wanted to give you an explanation of those two items in this session today. And so... give you an explanation of those two items in this session today. And so...
Transcribed with Cockatoo