The Remarkable Accuracy of Daniel's Prophecy
There is a remarkable accuracy from a historical perspective [looking back upon prophetic words and historical facts -- particularly the prophecy of the 70 weeks].
Question: How has history validated Daniel's authorship and message?
Thesis: The prophecy of the seventy weeks shows that not only did Daniel write the material, but that Daniel was a genuine prophet.
Introductory Remarks: In our introduction to the second hour of our studies, we said that the opponents of Daniel's validity as a revelation by a sixth-century B.C. prophet do not typically attack the material's accuracy but, instead, attack its authorship. There is a reason for this. There is an entrenched unwillingness in man to yield to an authority outside of himself (he especially dislikes the notion that there is a God Who has an undisputed right to tell him what is right and what is wrong and to hold him accountable for whether he does what is right). But, there is also an entrenched unwillingness in man to simply appear to be a rebel because that destroys his status in the eyes of men and even himself. So, man attempts to hide his rebellion under the disguise of reason and intelligence. In order to maintain this disguise, man has to address the logic of the biblical apologetic. But, he does not do this at the level of its logic [that is pretty much irrefutable and it is indefensible in the eyes of most men to reject it]. Rather, he does it at the level of the message. If there is no prophecy, there is no omniscient God handing down Truth. If there is no omniscient God handing down Truth, hacunna mattata reigns! Even the apostle of the majority of the New Testament freely admits that where there is no law, there is no accountability, and even Jesus said "If you were blind, you would have no sin". Therefore, if there is no Truth being handed down by a verified deity, we can do exactly as we please with no eternal consequences! Free at last! Free at last! Since there is no God Almighty, we are free at last! What does Daniel have to say about this? And, did Daniel really say it? The prophecy of the seventy weeks tells us.
The prophecy of the seventy weeks establishes a verifiable time line in history.
- How long is a week
- When was the prophecy to begin
- When was it to end
- What are the unambiguous details
- [For this material, see Daniel's 173,880 Days and The Biblical Apologetic].
The prophecy goes more than 200 years beyond a Maccabean Daniel and the Dead Sea Scrolls clearly force us to accept Daniel as a part of the Hebrew canon shortly after the Maccabean period.
