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Daniel

The book of Daniel was written about 164 B.C., its background was during the Antiochan persecution of the Jews. Who was Daniel? Daniel, himself, is known as pious character. Daniel has visions and can interpret dreams. Daniel's visions gives us a way of thinking about what will be the future of Israel after God triumphs over the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes. So the visions of Daniel are really one of our first important pieces of apocalyptic literature.

Alexander the Great conquered the area of the Near East, living behind a number of successor kingdoms, one of which was based in Syria. It was the kingdom of the Seleucid dynasty, and one of the monarchs was called Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who was a Greek ruler. He exercise a terrible tyranny over the Jews. This man desecrated the Temple and forbade all Jewish religious practices. Jews who wouldn't compromise started a war, known as the Maccabean Revolt, and in the end won. They defeated Antiochus, and reconsecrated the Temple. It was during this war that the Book of Daniel was composed. It wasn't composed by the Maccabeans. Any idea that is was a kind of recruiting manifesto is now discredited. It was a prophetic writing. The message that they were going to defeat Antiochus, and beyond that lies a world in which the Jews will be recognized as God's chosen people.

Was Daniel the first apocalypse?

If by apocalypse, one means works which are based on divine revelation, but, divine revelation concerning things to come, then this Book of Daniel is the first real apocalypse. The Book of Daniel is the apocalyptic book of the Hebrew bible. Its sister book would be the Book of Revelation. And in fact the Book of Revelation is a Christian interpretation of the Book of Daniel.

Some scholars who study the scriptures believe that this book was composed about 150 years before the time of Jesus, much later than the Babylonian exile. So the actual setting of the book appears to be the Maccabees. This would be the Syrian-Greek force coming in, suppressing Jerusalem and the Temple. It's similar to the Babylonian period, and this gives rise to the Book of Daniel. That there's going to be a sort of a salvation, and a redemption that would come due to this terrible evil, represented by Antiochus Epiphanes. He becomes our first Antichrist. The first one in history we can finger and say this is the type of ruler that these apocalyptic books picture as the ruler of the final end time.

The Book of Daniel is built around a series of five dreams, or revelations, that purport to lay out, in step by step fashion, what will actually happen in the last days. The fifth one, which is right toward the end of the book in chapter 11, is so detailed, it's the longest prophecy in the Bible. It literally details troop movements in the Middle East, the invasion of Jerusalem, all the things that are supposed to happen right before the end. It predicts a time of peace and a re-gathering of Israel.

Are the signs of the end of the of time here? What would lead up to this coming about? Why are we at war in the middle east? Is it because of the oil? Who ever conquers the land of oil fields can bring America to its knees. Are we fighting two separate wars? One for oil and the other against terrorist consume with hate for American and its citizens.

The true answers to all my questions are in found in God. He who searches the heart and know its full capacity for good and evil. He knows what is going on and why, and the outcome will be. All we can do is pray for our soldiers and our land and accept God's will.