Daniel

If you're reading this note I want you to find a Bible and turn to the book of Daniel.  There are some interesting things this book tells us, and I want to make light of something.

The most critical of Bible scholars have dated the original composition of Daniel sometime in the 2nd century BC.  They couldn't possibly date it any later than that since many fragments of that book, covering all of it except chapt 9 and 12, have been found with the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The reason they wish to date the book of Daniel as late as possible is because there are specific prophecies in it that deal with the Hellenistic period (chapt 8 and 11).  To learn more about the DSS and Daniel manuscript evidence check this link: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/266.  Critical scholars approach these books with a priori  belief that the supernatural does not exist, and these prophetic books therefore must have been written after the events they prophesy.  If the prophecies were vague, then it would be easy to dismiss them on that grounds.  Anyone can make a vague prophecy and get lucky.  However, if you read Daniel, and if you know some history, you see that the prophecies are rather detailed and extremely accurate.  Simple luck can not explain it.  But even the most critical of Bible scholars are forced to date the book in or before the 2nd century BC, or else lose all credibility.

So now that we have established that the book couldn't possibly have been written later than 100BC, turn to chapter two.  Read verses 31-45.  I'll go ahead and point out one portion of that

After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours.  Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.  Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron - for iron breaks and smashes everything - and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.  Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.  As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.  And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people.  It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.  This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands - a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.

This is the passage where Daniel is interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a man with a gold head, silver chest, bronze belly, iron legs, and partly iron and clay feet.  You can read that in verses 31-33.  The head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian Empire.  From there down history progresses.  The silver represents the Persian Empire, which immediately followed the Babylonian Empire, but was inferior (it didn't last as long).  Then came Alexander the Great, who conquered the known world; he is represented by the bronze.  After him came the Romans, who conquered and ruled over everyone like iron.  The Romans were strict.  Notice that there are iron legs and then feet of iron and clay.  The Roman Empire began strong.  They crushed everyone, just as verse 40 says.  Following that, they became divided.  This division began in 293AD under Diocletian, and was completely divided into Eastern Rome and Western Rome in 395AD.  This is also when Rome became weak, atleast weaker than they were.  Like verse 42 says, they were partly strong and partly brittle.  Their weakness was that they were a mixed people and they were not united, just like verse 43 says.

So you can see that this passage describes the Roman Empire very well, along with the empires that preceded it.  The critical scholars can say that it was written after the Babylonians, the Persians, and even after Alexander, but they cannot possibly get by saying that these verses were written after the division of Rome.  That is simply far too late of a date for the book of Daniel.  As I've pointed out before, the book of Daniel was written by atleast 100BC, before Rome was even an empire.  So you decide.  How do these verses align with history so well?  I know the answer, but I'll leave you with your intuition.

I also want to point out, in case you were wondering, the rock is Jesus.  The eternal Kingdom (mountain) that the rock comes from, and the rock grows into, is the Kingdom of God, known presently as the Church of Christ.  You can see this mountain growing today in the spread of Christianity.  Verse 35, where he says that this mountain will fill the whole earth, also lines up real well with what Jesus said in Matthew 24:14.  Read it.