PT-5 "Intro to the book of Daniel"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/21/2023 9:23 AM

 

            Once again I want to remind you that I am going to go over my study of the book of Daniel which I began in March of 2013.  When I studied Daniel back then I studied one chapter each month as I was also going over other Old Testament books.  What I am doing now is putting sections of John MacArthur’s introduction onto my blog pages in order to better understand more about the book of Daniel.  This will take some time as he has two very long sermons on his introduction to Daniel.  I don’t want to put too much on each day as I desire for those who read these to think about what is there.  Daniel is a very important Old Testament Prophet as the things that he wrote about are beginning to take place in our world today.

 

 

But then we come to the final two defenses of Scripture. And I think they’re the greatest two: miracles and prophecy. You know, the German rationalists said, “If we can just get the miracles out of the Bible.” And one German theologian finally got it all reduced down to 27 verses that were valid. Got all of them out of there. They used to talk about de-mythologizing the Bible, get all the miracles out.

And you know, one day a man named Karl Bart woke up and said to himself, “You know, we’ve got all the miracles out of the Bible, you know what we have? We don’t have religion anymore, we have philosophy.” And he tried real hard to stuff the miracles back in but he didn’t get them all the way in. He only got them half-way in and he invented a system called “neoorthodoxy,” which isn’t neoorthodox, it’s not new or orthodox. It’s like Grape Nuts, they’re not grapes or nuts, or Christian Science, which isn’t Christian or scientific.

But he tried and he said, “We’ve got to have miracles.” And so he wanted to get the miracles in but he didn’t have the understanding to put them all the way in. So he—he said, “Yes, I believe in them but they didn’t really happen here, they happened in super-duper history.” And you say, “Karl, what is that?” And he says, “I don’t know.”

But, you see, at least he grappled with the fact that if you have a Bible with no miracles you don’t have God, you’ve just got man. And if all we’ve got to get out of this mess is to turn to each other, we’re in bad shape. Even the rationalists, some of them, realize the hopelessness of a Bible without miracles. Why? Because miracles simply mean God is active, that’s all. Miracles are saying God is alive, God is operating. There’s something beyond us, something outside us. And the fact that the Bible is full of miracles is not reason to deny it, but is reason to affirm that God wrote it.

And then there are prophecies, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. Some hundreds already fulfilled. God predicted that Tyre would be destroyed. It was. God predicted Israel would go captive. They did. God predicted the destruction of Egypt and its society, and it came to pass. God predicted the destruction of many places, and they collapsed just as He had said. God promised a Messiah and He came. And did you know that when Jesus came at least 300 prophecies were fulfilled concerning Him, all of them given in the Old Testament? Listen, the miracles and prophecies of the Old Testament are the heart of its defense of its divine origination.

Now when you come to Daniel – and you’re going to get thrilled as we go through this – you will see miracle after miracle and prophecy after prophecy. That is why this book is so very important, and that is why it is so constantly attacked and maligned. If you’re going to destroy the validity of the Bible, Daniel has to go. And that’s why the attack is so relentless on Daniel. Now by the way, Daniel is important then for our time because liberal theology is constantly attacking. I mean, there are books coming out all the time by liberal people attacking Daniel.

We need to defend that. We don’t need to defend it philosophically, or apologetically. Listen. We get into the study of the book it will do a good job just for itself. You won’t have any questions by the time we’re done. But it was the same in Daniel’s time. Daniel needed credentials in his time that people might know he was the man of God. And so God filled his life with prophecies and miracles so even the pagan Babylonians would know he was the man of God. And, you know, I think they got the message, as we’ll see.

They tried to find a fault with him and they couldn’t find one except that he was so committed to his God. And Nebuchadnezzar finally said, “Your God is the God, I agree, Daniel.” Why? Because of the miracles in Daniel’s life. So Daniel becomes then a defense for God in this age. Daniel was a defense for God to the pagan Babylonian society and also for the very Jews in captivity. So this has been a constant message for God’s people. Miracles and prophecy mean God is alive and active.

Now, beloved, if we didn’t have a supernatural revelation, if God didn’t give us His Word, we wouldn’t know anything. Job, I think, put it very well. In Job 11:7 and 8, it says, “Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find the Almighty to perfection? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol, what canst thou know?” In other words, what Job 11 is saying is on your own can you find God? On your own can you comprehend God? On your own can you gain understanding of the – of the Almighty unto perfection? And the answer is obviously no.

I’ll tell you something, beloved, if this Bible isn’t God’s holy Word to us, then we don’t have any information from God and we don’t have any answers. On the other hand – and believe me, men don’t want to live like that – that’s why I believe it’s all energized by Satan. But if it is the Word of God, it is the Word of God because it’s proven to be so through the marvel and the wonder of its miracles and prophecies. So Isaac Newton said, “To reject Daniel is to reject the Christian religion.” And I think that’s right.

First of all, then, let’s affirm that we’re going to believe Daniel. We’re going to accept what he says as God’s Word. And when we see a miracle, we don’t want to deny that miracle. We want to affirm it because it proves that God is the author and God is at work. And when we hear a prophecy, we want to affirm that prophecy as that which is the evidence of the Word of God, for only God can tell the future. So Daniel becomes for us a home base for the affirmation of the authenticity of Scripture.

Let me go just a little further. Some of you might say, “Where did this attack all start?” Well, you can go back to 233 A.D., a man named Porphyry who started it all. He was a heretic, an antagonist, hated God and Christ and the Bible and he tried to do everything he could to destroy it. So he felt that the place he could attack the Bible best would be at Daniel, and so he just blistered his way through Daniel.

He wrote a series of 15 books under the total title of “Against Christianity,” or “Against the Christians.” And he was a rabid, wicked enemy of God and he focused on Daniel and just did everything he could to destroy Daniel. And what’s interesting to me is that for years, centuries, the work of Porphyry lied – was lying dormant until modern rationalism picked it up. And all they’re doing is rehashing all that old stuff by Porphyry which was answered in his own day and for which he was kicked out of all churches as a heretic. And here, modern rationalistic liberals have picked up the same thing again.

One final word on this particular problem and that is this, and this is enough for me. Jesus believed in the book of Daniel. Isn’t that good? And if Jesus believed it, then I believe it. You say, “How do you know He believed in it?” Well, all you have to do is read what He said about it. He referred to the book of Daniel many times, many times. He refers five, six, seven, eight times in the gospels to the book of Daniel. In Matthew alone, there must be four or five references to Daniel. And he even refers to Daniel as a prophet.

11/21/2023 9:28 AM