Daniel and the Coming King

The Key to the Ancient Prophecies of Daniel

This book an attempt to unlock that ancient prophecy which is itself a key to the rest of Scripture. Daniel is the only book of the Bible on which Christ put His finger and said, "Understand it" (Matthew 24:15).

All the chief themes of the New Testament are implicit in the book of Daniel, particularly those of the kingdom of God (inaugurated and consummated), Christ and Antichrist, the cross, the resurrection of the dead, the judgment, the time of the end, and the last great tribulation. Even justification by faith and the Pentecostal outpouring are present here as elements of the eschatological reality—the cross ushered in.
Daniel was written for people living in a time of apostasy and persecution. While at first sight the eras brought to view are those of the Babylonian captivity and the crisis under Antiochus Epiphanes, all subsequent times of similar persecutions are mirrored here.

It is amazing how many tiny details of this prophecy become the seed of elaborations in the New Testament. For example, Daniel 9:24-27 is the source of all the elements of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13. With Daniel as the seed, and the Gospels the blade, 2 Thessalonians and Revelation are "the full corn in the ear."
For an example of the myriad ways in which tiny allusions in Daniel are elaborated in the New Testament, consider the expression "to destroy and annihilate many" (Daniel 11:44). The Hebrew clause means "to anathematize." In Revelation 13:11-18 that prediction is expanded. Another example is the way Christ took the stone of Daniel 2 and applied it to the impact of His kingdom, both in its present reality and its final consummation. (See Luke 20:17,18.) And the elevation of the Son of man, to whom all power is given in Daniel 7, becomes a part of the great commission when Christ declared that all authority in heaven and on earth had been committed to Him. (See Matthew 28:18.)

A Word From the Author

This book is a revision and update of my commentary on Daniel published by the Southern Publishing Association in 1978. Much of the former volume is here, plus a considerable amount of new material particularly in the Appendices. The present work is divided into two main sections: the first is a straightforward interpretation and application of the chapters of Daniel, but the second is for "giraffes" who wish to reach higher. For them the second section of the book the appendices on technical issues—has been prepared.